Richard Grenell, the US Presidential Envoy for Special Missions, has criticised German Chancellor Friedrich Merz over Germany’s lax response to a rise in immigrant crime.
In a post on X on August 24, Grenell – who served as the US ambassador to Germany from 2018 to 2020 during Donald Trump’s first presidency – wrote: “Friedrich Merz must understand that the German people are sick and tired of this weak and woke response.”
. @_FriedrichMerz must understand that the German people are sick and tired of this weak and woke response. https://t.co/nOQjrfst8O
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— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) August 24, 2025
Grenell’s remarks came as a reaction to the stabbing of a US student on a German tram that was allegedly committed by a Syrian asylum seeker.
The US student himself had posted a video from hospital shortly after the attack that showed him with a bandaged face. “If [allegedly criminal asylum seekers] can do this to the people of Germany and then just get released 12 hours later, where’s the law?” he said.
The 21-year-old student said he had witnessed two men accosting a group of young women on a tram in Dresden (Saxony) late on the night of August 23. According to German police the US citizen intervened to help the harassed women. In reaction the two then allegedly started hitting the him. A short while later one of them pulled out a knife and allegedly stabbed him in the face several times.
The student was seriously – although not critically – injured and rushed to the hospital with several slash wounds to his face. Photos in German newspapers showed the blood-spattered interior of the tram.
The alleged attackers fled but one was later apprehended. According to German newspaper Bild on August 24, he was named as Majd A, a Syrian citizen who reportedly has a police record including alleged bodily harm, robbery and illegal immigration to Germany.
The suspect was taken into custody but released a couple of hours later by decision of the public prosecutor’s office.
Public prosecutor Jürgen Schmidt told Bild: “According to the assessment of the duty prosecutor, there were insufficient grounds for detention. He cannot be held responsible for the knife attack.”
Despite the two men allegedly attacking the US student together, the stabbing was being treated as a separate offence, the perpetrator of which was still at large.
Germany only allows pretrial detention as a rare exception. Reportedly, the prosecutors saw no chance of obtaining an arrest warrant from the investigating judge in this case as there was no risk of Majd A fleeing, concealing evidence or reoffending as he has a permanent place of residence.
The police are now looking for witnesses and have secured CCTV footage from the tram.
