Trump and Merz began by exchanging pleasantries — Merz gave Trump a gold-framed birth certificate of the U.S. president’s grandfather Friedrich Trump, who emigrated to America from Kallstadt, Germany, and Trump called the chancellor a “very good man to deal with.”“He’s difficult, I would say? He has thanked Trump for his support for an unconditional ceasefire while rejecting the idea of “dictated peace” or the “subjugation” of Ukraine and advocating for more sanctions against Russia. AdvertisementOn Thursday, Trump also kept the threat of sanctions on the table — but for both Russia and Ukraine. At home, Merz’s government is intensifying a drive that his immediate predecessor, Olaf Scholz, began to bolster the German military after Russia invaded Ukraine. “Germany is one of the very big investors in America,” Merz told German reporters Thursday morning ahead of his visit with Trump.
