Merz at Trump: So the US President demonstrated his superiority

It was a strange moment with an otherwise harmonious exchange. When Chancellor Friedrich Merz was sitting at Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Thursday, the US President was asked by a journalist whether Germany was doing enough for his defense.

Trump hesitated. “I don’t know,” he said at first. Germany now spends “much more”, he said to Merz, which he confirmed. “I am not sure whether General Macarthur would have said that this was positive,” Trump suddenly continued.

Douglas Macarthur was a US general who was in action in the Second World War and later commanded the United Nations peace forces in the Korean War. “He said: Germany never let himself be armed again,” said Trump. He always thinks about it and ask himself whether it is good or bad.

“I think it’s a good thing,” said Trump. But there will be a point where he will say: “Stop! Not so much!” Doesn’t Trump, of all people, who has been asking for higher defense spending on Europe and Germany for months, worried about a German reworking?

Christian Mölling from the Brussels Thinktank European Policy Center comes to a different assessment. “Basically, he was concerned with saying that he has everything under control,” says the political scientist in the current episode of the star– s “Die Lage -International”.

It is interesting that he grabs a figure like General Macarthur from a “completely different historical perspective”. “There was a reimbursement debate in the 1950s when it came to how the United States can actually be relieved with regard to the Korean War,” said Mölling. In the first place, the idea came up to rebuild Germany.

Mölling is not sure whether Trump is aware of this historical parallel at all. Rather, his intention was more, says the security expert: “I think it was about saying: I give the Merz the green light, but I can also turn the tap again.”

Overall, Mölling positively evaluates the Federal Chancellor’s state visit to Washington. “It went well because nothing went wrong. The expectations that Trump has created are so low.” There you are happy if there are no dramatic incidents as when visiting the Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj.

However, Mölling warns to derive conclusions for the further ratio. “That is one moment.” Of course, with the “linear politician expectation”, Merz is based on the fact that the good conversation could be the basis for a good relationship. “But this reliability and continuity is not exactly the political style of Donald Trump,” says the expert. “In case of doubt, Donald Trump Germany will find totally stupid tomorrow.”