Updated
Updated · POLITICO Europe · May 6
Merz meets Trump and presents framed birth certificate
Updated
Updated · POLITICO Europe · May 6

Merz meets Trump and presents framed birth certificate

14 articles · Updated · POLITICO Europe · May 6
  • At the White House last summer, the German chancellor gave a copy of Friedrich Trump's 1869 birth certificate from Kallstadt, a village in southwestern Germany.
  • The pair discussed Ukraine, trade, defence spending and strains in the transatlantic relationship during Merz's first meeting with the US president.
  • Trump later praised Merz as a "very respected man", underscoring a cordial encounter centred on security, commerce and the broader Western alliance.
Amid tariff wars, will the multi-trillion-dollar transatlantic economy be the glue that holds the fracturing U.S.-German alliance together?
As U.S. troops exit, can Germany's military revival forge a new European security order before the next crisis erupts?
With U.S. deterrence weakened by the Iran war, are European nations secretly accelerating plans for their own independent defense systems?