Merz Repairs Iran Rift With Trump, Widens Values Gap

Friedrich Merz spent May 15 simultaneously closing one front with Washington and opening another. The chancellor said he and Donald Trump held a 'good phone call' as Trump flew back from China, and German government sources said the Iran-policy dispute that had dominated transatlantic relations for three weeks was now considered settled, with Trump describing it as such. Merz wrote on X that the two 'agree: Iran must come to the negotiating table now. The Strait of Hormuz must be opened. Tehran must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons.' He said the call also covered a peaceful solution for Ukraine and coordination ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara in July, adding that 'the US and Germany are strong partners in a strong NATO'.

The rift had begun in late April when Merz told schoolchildren in the Sauerland that Washington had 'no strategy' for talks with Tehran and that 'an entire nation' was being humiliated by Iran's leadership. Trump retorted that Merz did not know what he was talking about, called the chancellor's performance 'terrible', described Germany as 'broken' and ordered the withdrawal of US troops — a decision the Pentagon has since formalised at 5,000 soldiers. Trump's stop in Beijing produced parallel Iran signals: he told reporters Xi had expressed willingness to help reopen the strait and assured him China would not give Tehran military support.

Hours before the call, however, Merz delivered a sharply worded message about the United States from a podium in Würzburg, where the 104th Catholic Day, organised by the Central Committee of German Catholics, opened on May 14 with around 30,000 registered participants under the motto 'Hab Mut, steh auf!' In a discussion with young people he said: 'I would not recommend my children today to go to the US to be educated and to work, simply because a social climate has suddenly developed there.' He added, to laughter from the audience, that he was 'a great admirer of America's, but right now my admiration is not increasing,' and conceded he had to improve his own communication to make himself understood. Hecklers interrupted parts of the appearance; the audience applauded loudly.

On the security side, Germany's top military commander General Carsten Breuer warned at the same Catholic Day that Russia is rapidly expanding its armed forces and could be capable of waging a large-scale war against NATO by 2029, citing intelligence on new Russian garrisons and a build-up of weapons stocks for a major conflict. He urged allies to lift their own military capabilities to deter such a move. In parallel, defence minister Boris Pistorius signalled that the Bundeswehr could contribute additional forces to a European mission to secure the Strait of Hormuz, the British- and French-led effort that remains conditional on a durable Iran ceasefire and the relevant international and national mandates — a step Berlin reads as both a strategic signal to European partners and a political answer to Trump's earlier criticism of allies.

The Catholic Day backdrop also produced a parallel German rebuke of Trump from federal president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who at the opening defended Pope Leo XIV against the US president's criticism, saying that 'when Pope Leo publicly calls for greater efforts for peace in a time of crises and wars, such an appeal deserves support, not criticism — not even from the most powerful in the world.' Trump had earlier accused the American-born pope of siding with 'a country that wants a nuclear weapon' over his Iran policy.