German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged US President Donald Trump to put more pressure on Russia to end the war in Ukraine, even as the American leader suggested there wasn’t much he could do.
Merz, who took office one month ago and in February said Europe needed “independence” from the US, avoided an Oval Office blowup with Trump through “a great deal of mutual flattery, which is known to be Trump’s most important currency,” Der Spiegel wrote.
Despite the congenial encounter, the meeting highlighted the gulf between Europe and Trump on ending the war: Trump spoke of the conflict as if he were a bystander, The New York Times noted, comparing Russia and Ukraine to “two young children fighting like crazy.”
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