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US president says German chancellor \u2018doesn\u2019t know what he\u2019s talking about\u2019, defends war on Iran as necessary.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 28 Apr 2026<\/span>28 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n President Donald Trump has hit out at Germany\u2019s Friedrich Merz over the chancellor\u2019s criticism of the United States-Israeli war on Iran, stressing that the conflict was necessary to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s comment on Tuesday reflected his often-expressed frustration with European and NATO allies over their unwillingness to fully back the war or take part in it.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cThe Chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz, thinks it\u2019s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. He doesn\u2019t know what he\u2019s talking about! If Iran had a Nuclear Weapon, the whole World would be held hostage,\u201d Trump wrote in a social media post.<\/p>\n \u201cI am doing something with Iran, right now, that other Nations, or Presidents, should have done long ago. No wonder Germany is doing so poorly, both Economically, and otherwise!\u201d<\/p>\n Although Germany has been one of the most loyal allies of the US and Israel, Merz offered a blunt assessment of the war on Iran, calling the military campaign \u201cill-considered\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem with conflicts like this is always you don\u2019t just have to get in \u2013 you have to get out again. We saw that very painfully in Afghanistan for 20 years. We saw it in Iraq,\u201d Merz said.<\/p>\n The German leader also suggested that Washington is being \u201chumiliated\u201d by Tehran\u2019s negotiating tactics as Iran refuses to send delegates to meet US officials before the blockade on its ports is lifted.<\/p>\n Merz\u2019s criticism represented a sharp departure from his hawkish pro-Israel policies. When the Israeli military started bombing Iran without provocation last year, the German chancellor said Israel \u201cis doing the dirty work for all of us\u201d.<\/p>\n Germany has been one of the largest weapons suppliers to Israel.<\/p>\n However, the current US-Israeli war on Iran has sent oil prices soaring at a time when Germany and other European countries are still reeling from the economic crises spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n Since the start of the war, Trump has complained about European allies over their refusal to directly participate in the conflict or help reopen the Strait of Hormuz by force.<\/p>\n When Merz visited the White House last month, Trump threatened to cut off trade with Spain over its stance against the war.<\/p>\n Merz remained silent as the US president berated the European Union nation, and Trump went on to praise Germany during the meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re a respected country,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI have a very good relationship with the country \u2013 in particular now, with this leader.\u201d<\/p>\n The US president has been arguing that the war with Iran aims to prevent the country from obtaining nuclear weapons. But Trump\u2019s own intelligence chief, Tulsi Gabbard, told Congress last year that Tehran is not building one.<\/p>\n In the months before Israel and the US started bombing Iran again on February 28, Trump had repeatedly said that the June 2025 US strikes on Iranian facilities \u201cobliterated\u201d Tehran\u2019s nuclear programme.<\/p>\n Last week, the US State Department released a legal justification for the war, saying that Washington \u201cis engaged in this conflict at the request of and in the collective self-defence of its Israeli ally, as well as in the exercise of the United States\u2019 own inherent right of self-defence\u201d.<\/p>\n But Trump has insisted that Israel did not talk him into launching the war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n US president says German chancellor \u2018doesn\u2019t know what he\u2019s talking about\u2019, defends war on Iran as necessary. Published On 28 Apr 202628 Apr 2026 President Donald Trump has hit out at Germany\u2019s Friedrich Merz over the chancellor\u2019s criticism of the United States-Israeli war on Iran, stressing that the conflict was necessary to prevent Tehran from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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