Donald Trump went on the attack against German Friedrich Merz after the chancellor criticized the way the United States has been conducting the war against Iran.
Earlier this week, Merz said that American negotiators were being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership, in a conflict that is now approaching its third month and has caused turbulence in the global energy market.
“German Chancellor Friedrich Merz thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday (28). “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about! If Iran had a nuclear weapon, the entire world would be held hostage.”
The reaction came about a day and a half after Merz gave an unusually frank assessment of Trump’s negotiating strategy.
Speaking to a group of students at a school in western Germany on Monday (27), the chancellor said he did not see what the US exit plan was — and described Tehran’s negotiators as acting “with great skill — or, in fact, with great skill in not negotiating.”
“An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership,” Merz said.
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The statements angered the American president, who argued that his pressure on Iran’s nuclear program is something that “other countries, or other presidents, should have done a long time ago”.
“No wonder Germany is doing so badly, economically and on other fronts!” Trump fired.
Asked about the attack this Wednesday, Merz tried to cool the atmosphere and minimize any personal friction with the American leader.
“The personal relationship between the president of the United States and myself remains, at least from my point of view, as good as it has ever been,” he told reporters at the chancellery. In English, he added that the two maintain “good communication”.
Still, the chancellor reinforced that Germany and Europe are “suffering a lot” from the US campaign against Iran, which disrupted energy supplies and affected the economy. He once again defended that the war needs to end.
Germany has been advocating for years that Iran reduce its uranium enrichment program, accept rigorous verification mechanisms and abandon any ambitions to have a nuclear weapon.
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In 2015, the country joined the group formed by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China — that signed the nuclear agreement known as JCPOA. Under the pact, Iran limited its program in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump abandoned the deal three years later.
Merz’s speeches exposed the growing frustration among European leaders and a repositioning in the way they deal with Trump. The strategy of “sweetening the speech” to keep the relationship under control has given way to a more direct stance in relation to a president who has already questioned NATO several times, encouraged far-right groups in Europe and even threatened to take over Greenland, a Danish territory.
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