Trump’s barrage of criticism comes in response to Merz’s comments on Monday that the US was being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership.
US President Trump has continued his tirade against German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who heads the government one of America’s most important allies, telling him to “spend more time ending the war in Russia/Ukraine,” rather than commenting on the Iran war.
“The Chancellor of Germany should spend more time on ending the war with Russia/Ukraine (Where he has been totally ineffective!), and fixing his broken Country, especially Immigration and Energy, and less time on interfering with those that are getting rid of the Iran Nuclear threat, thereby making the World, including Germany, a safer place!” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform.
It follows on from a late night post on Wednesday where Trump threatened a significant reduction in the number of US troops stationed in German.
“The United States is studying and reviewing the possible reduction of Troops in Germany, with a determination to be made over the next short period of time,” Trump wrote.
Trump’s barrage of criticism comes in response to Merz’s comments on Monday that the US was being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership. Merz said Tehran had out skilled the White House team of negotiators.
“An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards,” Merz said.
“The Iranians are clearly stronger than expected and the Americans clearly have no truly convincing strategy in the negotiations either,” he told students in Marsberg.
Merz also slammed Washington for having what he perceived as an ill-conceived strategy for starting and ending the war.
On Thursday afternoon, at a visit to troops at a military area in Munster, Merz reportedly didn’t directly address Trump’s threats regarding the troop drawdown, but referenced instead the endurance of the transatlantic partnership.
“On all these [world] issues, we maintain close and trusting contact with our partners, including, and especially, those in Washington,” he said. “We do this in the shared transatlantic interest. We do so with mutual respect and a fair sharing of the burden.”
Trump’s announcement that he is considering reducing the number of troops in Europe is not new, but NATO experts say the frequent pronouncements have eroded the transatlantic alliance irretrievably.
The time has come to think of “Europe without the US,” former NATO Policy Director Fabrice Pothier told Euronews.
Pothier said Europe is going through a “boiling frog moment” when it comes to relations with Washington, where “the situation gets worse every year,” but European states are then reassured by the US that “it’s still a good ally,” he said.
The boiling frog refers to a person’s refusal to acknowledge existing threats, through the metaphor of a frog in a pot of lukewarm water which slowly starts boiling, endangering it gradually.
He said Europe needs to immediately scale up its collective defence in order to stand alone in the face of future threats to the continent.
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