Friedrich Merz, the chancellor of Germany, rarely rebukes President Trump. He has invested heavily in building a friendship with the president, in hopes of influencing him on Ukraine and other security issues.
But on Friday at the annual security conference in Munich, Mr. Merz said that under Mr. Trump in his second term, the United States’ claim to global leadership “has been challenged, and possibly squandered.”
Mr. Merz repeatedly referred to Americans as “friends,” and he made the case for why both the United States and Europe still need each other as partners. But he also listed the ways in which Mr. Trump’s policies had broken with the values Germans and other Europeans once believed they shared with America, including opposition to hate speech, the fight against climate change and support for free trade.
It appeared to be a direct — albeit delayed — response to the surprise critique of Europe that Vice President JD Vance delivered last year at this conference. Mr. Vance chided European leaders for suppressing some conservatives’ speech and barring the far right from governance.
“A divide has opened up between Europe and the United States,” Mr. Merz said. “Vice President JD Vance said this very openly here in Munich a year ago. He was right. The culture war of the MAGA movement is not ours.”
Near the end of the speech, which he delivered in German, Mr. Merz broke into English to directly address the American administration.
“In the era of great power rivalry, even the United States will not be powerful enough to go it alone. Dear friends, being a part of NATO is not only Europe’s competitive advantage. It is also the United States’ competitive advantage.”
German officials suggested before the address that Mr. Merz had chosen his words carefully. They said his speech was a declaration of a new German strategy for Europe in a radically changed world order.
But the chancellor did not play down the harsh words for America. He printed them in a Foreign Affairs article that was published while he was speaking.
He was also not the only German leader to take aim at Mr. Trump and his team.
“We will respect your leadership,” Markus Söder, the prime minister of the German state of Bavaria, said in a brief welcome address to open the conference, addressing America. “But maybe you pay us a little more respect.”
Jim Tankersley is the Berlin bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
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