Donald Trump has unleashed another attack at the German Chancellor in a furious social media post, calling Friedrich Merz an ‘ineffective’ leader.
The US President is continuing to pillory Merz, who has been increasingly critical of the US-Israel war against Iran.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he ‘should spend more time on ending the war with Russia/Ukraine’ and ‘fixing his broken Country, especially Immigration and Energy’ and less time concerning himself with the Middle East conflict.
The latest criticism of Merz by Trump came the day after the US President announced he was reviewing the US military presence in Germany, a Nato ally that hosts several American military installations.
The spat started on Monday, when Merz said during a school visit in western Germany that Washington was being ‘humiliated’ by Tehran and had prosecuted the war without a viable exit strategy, comparing the situation to past issues in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He also lamented that the conflict was detrimental to Germany’s economy, adding that it was ‘costing us a great deal of money’.
Trump didn’t take kindly to the comments, and lashed out on Truth Social the next day, writing: ‘The Chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz, thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.
‘He doesn’t know what he’s talking about!’
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (L) and the Inspector of the Army Christian Freuding pictured sitting in a GTK Boxer tank at the German army barracks in Munster, northern Germany, on April 30
US President Donald Trump has unleashed another attack at the German Chancellor in a furious social media post, calling Friedrich Merz an ‘ineffective’ leader
Merz sought to cool tensions with Trump on Wednesday, insisting their relationship remains strong despite the heated public argument.
‘The personal relationship between the American president and me remains, in my view, as good as ever,’ the German Chancellor said at a press conference. ‘We are still, to put it in American English, on good speaking terms.’
He framed his recent criticism of the Iran war as a response to the conflict’s economic fallout, rather than Trump’s leadership.
‘We are suffering considerably in Germany and in Europe from the consequences of … the closure of the Strait of Hormuz,’ he said, citing soaring energy costs and economic strain.
While Germany backed the war when it first started on February 28, the government’s tone has hardened as the conflict has escalated.
Berlin rejected Washington’s calls for transatlantic military involvement, insisting the conflict ‘is not Nato’s war,’ and has only offered a limited role – including minesweepers to help secure the Strait of Hormuz – once fighting stops.
Now, Washington is considering reducing the number of US troops in Germany as punishment for a lack of support.
‘The United States is studying and reviewing the possible reduction of Troops in Germany, with a determination to be made over the next short period of time,’ Trump said on Truth Social.
The US had just over 68,000 active-duty military personnel assigned permanently in its overseas bases in Europe as of December 2025, data from the US Defence Manpower Data Center (DMDC) shows.
More than half – about 36,400 – are based in Germany. That is a fraction of the 250,000 US troops that were based there in 1985, before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War.
Trump sought a major reduction in US troop levels in Germany during his first term, although that was never realised, said Jeff Rathke, a former US diplomat and president of the American-German Institute at Johns Hopkins University.
Rathke said the US military benefitted greatly from having a forward presence at bases overseas, including Ramstein in Germany. ‘US forces in Europe are not a charitable contribution to ungrateful Europeans – they are an instrument of America’s global military reach,’ he said.
Iran said on Thursday it would respond with ‘long and painful strikes’ on US positions if Washington renewed attacks, and also reasserted its control over the Strait of Hormuz, complicating US plans for a coalition to reopen the waterway.
Two months into the war, the vital sea channel remains closed, choking off 20 per cent of the world’s oil and gas supplies. That has sent global energy prices surging and heightened concerns about the risks of an economic downturn.
Efforts to resolve the conflict have hit an impasse, with a ceasefire in place since April 8 but Iran still blocking the strait in response to a US naval blockade of Tehran’s oil exports, the country’s economic lifeline.
Trump is slated to receive a briefing on Thursday on plans for a series of fresh military strikes on Iran to compel it to negotiate an end to the conflict.
Such options have long been part of the Pentagon’s planning but the proposed briefing, first reported by news site Axios late on Wednesday, spurred big gains in oil prices, with the benchmark Brent crude contract hitting more than $126 a barrel at one point. It later slipped back to around $113 a barrel.
Any US attack on Iran, even if limited, will usher in ‘long and painful strikes’ on US regional positions, a senior Revolutionary Guards official said.
‘We’ve seen what happened to your regional bases, we will see the same thing happen to your warships,’ Aerospace Force Commander Majid Mousavi was quoted by Iranian media as saying.