Merz arrives at White House for high-stakes Oval Office talk with President Donald Trump in the same format as recent clashes with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa.
Update 11:59 ET — Joke at Germany’s expense
President Trump says he’s happy about Germany spending more on defence, but jokingly citing the Second World War says that while he wants Germany to re-arm, he doesn’t want it to re-arm too much. This gets a smile out of Merz.
Germany’s military spending, which has been rock-bottom for many years, has long been a matter of contention with President Trump, who wants Europe to take on more responsibility for its own defence. As Trump himself has expressed, the contradiction between Germany’s historically low military spending and its position of Europe’s greatest economy had been too much to bear.
Germany has launched an emergency spending package to boost its armed forces but this tranche of funding is only due to run to 2027.
