\n<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump has renewed his attacks on German Chancellor Friedrich Merz as the rift between the United States and one of its closest European allies widens over Berlin\u2019s criticism of the war on Iran.<\/p>\n
The US president suggested on Thursday that Merz should focus on German and European affairs rather than comment on the conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cThe Chancellor of Germany should spend more time on ending the war with Russia\/Ukraine (Where he has been totally ineffective!), and fixing his broken Country, especially Immigration and Energy, and less time on interfering with those that are getting rid of the Iran Nuclear threat,\u201d Trump wrote in a social media post.<\/p>\n He added that the war on Iran, which has sent energy prices soaring across the globe, is \u201cmaking the World, including Germany, a safer place\u201d.<\/p>\n The episode underscores the fraying effects of the Iran war on the US-Europe alliance, which Trump launched jointly with Israel without consulting Washington\u2019s NATO partners.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Trump said his administration is considering scaling back the number of US troops in Germany, where Washington\u2019s military presence is seen as the centre of its security umbrella over Europe.<\/p>\n Berlin has said it is ready for the possibility of fewer US soldiers on its soil while emphasising NATO cooperation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are prepared for that,\u201d Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said, according to the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are discussing it closely and in a spirit of trust in all NATO bodies, and we are expecting decisions from the Americans about this.\u201d<\/p>\n The feud started when Merz, who had previously been closely aligned with the US and Israel in their hawkish approach to Iran, questioned Washington\u2019s strategy in the conflict.<\/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 he said.<\/p>\n He also suggested that the Trump administration is being \u201chumiliated\u201d by Tehran\u2019s negotiating tactics and its refusal to engage in direct talks before its conditions \u2013 namely lifting the naval blockade on Iranian ports \u2013 are met.<\/p>\n Trump scolded Merz over the remarks earlier this week, saying that the German leader \u201cdoesn\u2019t know what he\u2019s talking about\u201d.<\/p>\n Berlin has tried to walk back Merz\u2019s comments. Wadephul, the foreign minister, told public broadcaster DW on Wednesday that the chancellor was referring to Iran\u2019s \u201cbad behaviour\u201d in the talks, echoing Trump\u2019s assessment that Tehran is \u201coverplaying\u201d its hand.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we currently see is that Iran is playing for time and not really negotiating in a way which is necessary,\u201d Wadephul said.<\/p>\n Germany is one of the top military suppliers to Israel. Berlin has also been cracking down on Palestinian rights activism at home with what activists describe as campaigns of arrests, censorship and profiling.<\/p>\n When the Israeli military started bombing Iran without provocation last year, the Merz said Israel \u201cis doing the dirty work for all of us\u201d.<\/p>\n Despite Trump\u2019s disparaging comments this week, Merz has stressed commitment to NATO and the US-European alliance.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are following a clear compass, especially during this turbulent phase, this compass remains focused on a strong NATO and a reliable transatlantic partnership,\u201d he said on Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cAs you know, this transatlantic partnership is particularly close to our hearts \u2013 and to mine personally.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump, however, has been voicing increased scepticism of NATO over the bloc\u2019s refusal to directly participate in the war against Iran or help to forcibly reopen the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n The US president has been portraying the war as necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n But Washington\u2019s own intelligence chief, Tulsi Gabbard, said 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<\/div>\n President Donald Trump has renewed his attacks on German Chancellor Friedrich Merz as the rift between the United States and one of its closest European allies widens over Berlin\u2019s criticism of the war on Iran. The US president suggested on Thursday that Merz should focus on German and European affairs rather than comment on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21000","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=21000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"