Friedrich Merz, who styles himself as a "strong" German Chancellor, has reached a new low in German foreign policy with his obsequious birthday tribute to Donald Trump.
Anyone who plays "on the same team" as a US president—one who regularly berates Europe as a free-rider, uses punitive tariffs to extort it, and threatens conquest—has evidently forgotten whose Chancellor he actually is.
Merz is not merely trading away dignity; he is signaling weakness.
This is precisely the kind of submissive attitude that Trump is all too eager to exploit. Instead of earning respect, Germany reaps only contempt—and rightly so.
German foreign policy requires backbone, not gifts of jerseys and talk of "team spirit." Merz’s performance epitomizes everything rotten in current Berlin politics: a lack of principles, posturing, and a desperate attempt to feign strength through weakness. Europe deserves better than this act of subservience.