BREAKING: Trump breaks silence on 'disturbed' Musk's electric car plea and black eye
U.S. President
Donald Trump
and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz
held a bilateral meeting
on Thursday. The pair discussed several important topics,
such as NATO
, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and trade. Trump, 78, welcomed Merz to the
White House
at 11:40 a.m.
and the pair shook hands before retreating into the West Wing to hold the meeting.
During the meeting, Trump was asked about the barrage of attacks made by the former Department of Government Efficiency head. "Well, look, I like Elon and I was very surprised," Trump said.
"You saw the words he had for me and he hasn't said anything about me which is bad," Trump added. " I would rather have him criticize me than the bill. Because the bill is incredible."
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"It's the biggest cut in the history of our country we've ever cut, Trump added. "It's about 1.6 trillion cuts."
The Associated Press reported that the
German
leader will likely speak in-depth about the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. In a statement Thursday morning, the German Chancellor said that "the meeting has been well prepared on all sides."
Merz teased the agenda with Trump by saying,"We will have to talk about NATO — we changed the constitution in Germany so that we can spend the means that need to be spent." He added, "We want to become the strongest conventional army in the European Union."
According to Merz, he does not expect to have any major breakthrough with Trump on those key issues. A White House official also stated Trump is likely to raise with Merz include Germany's defense spending, trade, Ukraine and what the official called 'democratic backsliding."
The Trump administration has claimed that the countries' shared values, such as freedom of speech, have allegedly deteriorated in Germany and that the country should reverse its course. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Merz stated that if Trump wanted to talk about German domestic politics, he was willing to do so; however, he also stressed that Germany held back about discussing American domestic policies.
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