President Trump was sitting in the Oval Office on Thursday, trying unprompted to dispel the idea that he was overly friendly with Russia.
“I’m not friends with anybody,” Mr. Trump told reporters gathered for a news conference. Then he half-smiled and gestured to the man sitting beside him.
“I’m friends with you,” he told Friedrich Merz.
Mr. Merz, the new chancellor of Germany, chuckled. By that point, it was clear that he had aced his test with the volatile American president, who has berated other international dignitaries and made no secret in the past of his antipathy toward the leaders of Germany, his ancestral homeland.
On Thursday, Mr. Trump and Mr. Merz seemed chummy from the start. It helps that Mr. Merz fits the profile of other counterparts Mr. Trump has praised during White House visits, like Prime Ministers Mark Carney of Canada and Keir Starmer of Britain.
Mr. Merz is a tall man. His English is excellent. He comes from the business world. He gifted Mr. Trump a copy of Mr. Trump’s grandfather’s German birth certificate. The president called it “fantastic” and said he would hang it in a place of honor. He then seemed to cast Mr. Merz as an avatar for his fondest images of Germany.
“I want to welcome you to the Oval Office. It’s an Oval Office that’s in very good shape,” Mr. Trump said. “We like fixing things up, and having them tippy top, like they have in Germany.”
Mr. Trump went on to praise Mr. Merz’s negotiating stances, his English skills, his agreement with Mr. Trump’s opposition to a natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany that was supported by one of Mr. Merz’s predecessors, former Chancellor Angela Merkel. (Mr. Merz has famously feuded with Ms. Merkel, as has Mr. Trump.)
Mr. Merz knew that Mr. Trump usually does most of the talking with foreign counterparts. He did not fight the trend. He often sat silent for minutes as the president fielded questions.
He welcomed Mr. Trump’s praise of Germany and smiled through minor slights, like Mr. Trump musing about whether it was a good idea for Germany to increase its military spending — as the president has long pushed the Germans to do.
“I’m not sure that General MacArthur would have said it was positive, you know?” Mr. Trump said at one point, referring to the American commander in World War II. “He wouldn’t like it, but I sort of think it’s good. You understand that?”
Mr. Merz said he did.
“He made a statement, never let Germany rearm,” Mr. Trump said. A beat later, he added: “I think that’s a good thing, at least to a certain point. There will be a point when I say, please don’t arm anymore.”
Mr. Merz chimed in mostly to appeal to Mr. Trump’s ego and national pride. He thanked Americans for liberating Europe on D-Day, 81 years ago on Friday. He said Mr. Trump could prove equally consequential by backing Ukraine in its war against Russia. When Mr. Trump interjected to say D-Day was bad for Germany, Mr. Merz waved him off, telling him that America saved his country from the Nazis, too.
German news media reacted with mix of relief and bemusement. “Merz can hardly get a word in edgewise in the Oval Office,” the flagship public news outlet Tagesschau declared in its live commentary. The left-leaning Süddeutsche Zeitung noted that Mr. Merz flattered Mr. Trump but mostly just let him talk. Der Spiegel, one of the country’s most influential news sources, at one point compared Mr. Merz to a movie extra.
Mr. Merz fielded no hard questions from the president, even on thorny issues White House officials had suggested might come up. That included German speech laws that Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have called undemocratic because they have at times penalized the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD.
On Thursday, Mr. Vance and Mr. Rubio sat largely silent on an Oval Office couch for 45 minutes. Mr. Trump asked about treatment of the AfD over lunch, German officials said later. Mr. Merz warned him that the party has a history of criticizing America, and of fondness for Russia and China.
Mr. Merz also tried privately to persuade Mr. Trump that the European Union was not created to rival America, but to bring peace on the continent. Addressing the president’s trade complaints, Mr. Merz said Europeans buy a large number of cars made in the United States — including Mr. Merz’s own personal vehicle, a BMW X3 that was built in Spartanburg, S.C.
But Mr. Merz did not leave with defined policy victories.
Mr. Trump did not offer more weapons or other further support for Ukraine. There was no trade breakthrough.
The chancellor was delighted anyway. He fielded congratulatory messages from fellow European leaders, who have made their own mixed efforts to court Mr. Trump.
“We have a level of openness and collegiality in our conversations,” Mr. Merz told reporters afterward. “Building on this, we will certainly have very good conversations in the future.”
Christopher F. Schuetze contributed reporting.
Jim Tankersley is the Berlin bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
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