Germany’s Friedrich Merz, poised to be his country’s next chancellor, said he thinks the explosive exchange between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Trump on Friday resulted from a “deliberate escalation” by the U.S.
At a press conference on Monday, Merz said he watched the interaction several times to reach that conclusion, according to multiple international news agencies’ translations of his remarks.
“In my opinion, it was not a spontaneous reaction to what Zelensky was saying, but obviously a deliberate escalation in this meeting in the Oval Office,” Merz said, according to a translation.
Merz was responding to the heated interaction between Trump, Vice President Vance and Zelensky, who was visiting the Oval Office to sort out a deal to give the U.S. access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals.
That deal appears to have stalled indefinitely after Zelensky challenged the American leaders over their approach to negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Trump and Vance both reprimanded Zelensky in response, calling him ungrateful and saying he didn’t have “the cards” in the negotiation. The remarkable exchange was broadcast live on television.
Merz said in his remarks that he was “rather astonished at the tone of the conversation” between Trump, Vance and Zelensky.
He added that the incident appeared to fit a trend in U.S. foreign policy, as Trump has ramped up pressure on Zelensky while thawing relations with Putin. Merz also pointed to Vance’s recent address at the Munich Security Conference, where he stunned European leaders by attacking European values and calling for cooperation with far-right parties.
“There is a certain sequence in a number of events in recent weeks and months, including the appearance of the American delegation in Munich at the security conference, and we are now seeing it from Washington,” Merz said at the press conference.
Merz, whose center-right party won Germany’s recent elections, has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine and has criticized Trump’s recent warming to Putin.
