Was German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s great show of respect for President Trump in the White House on Tuesday precisely that: Just a show? Remarks that Merz made at a public event in Germany just days earlier demonstrated that his tone is rather different, even indeed mocking, when speaking to a German audience.
In their joint press conference, the German Chancellor respectfully offered support for American military strikes on Iran, and the American President described the Chancellor as “a friend.” But just three days before boarding his flight for Washington, the German Chancellor broke out a Donald Trump impersonation at an electoral event in the German state of Hessen, mimicking – or, as German critics have put it, “aping” – the American President to a packed house that responded with great mirth and applause.
In the Oval Office, President Trump praised Merz, in particular for his supposedly strict stance on immigration, and it was precisely in vaunting his achievements in this regard that Merz suddenly broke out his Trump impersonation. Merz referred to a recent telephone call with Trump, in which, he said, he told the American President that he had succeeded in reducing what he called “irregular” immigration to Germany by 60 per cent. Merz then imitated Trump’s supposedly astonished reaction in English: “What did you say? 60 per cent?” Merz then continued, citing his conversation with Trump, “I’m telling you, President, we brought the numbers down by 60 per cent,” before again mimicking Trump in English: “I don’t believe it!”
The unexpected impersonation was met with some scattered, perhaps embarrassed, titters in the crowd. But the biggest reaction was reserved for when Merz then said that he would be seeing the President again shortly and would show him what he meant “using charts” – a comment that the German alternative media Junge Freiheit interprets as implying that President Trump is too obtuse to grasp it otherwise.
Even if Merz would then go on to cleverly change the subject to his busy travel schedule, the huge outburst of laughter and extended applause from the crowd suggests that this is precisely how it was understood.
Readers can judge for themselves.
Citing the official statistics of Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), Junge Freiheit by the way suggests that Donald Trump’s incredulity was entirely justified. In 2025, the number of applications for asylum in Germany did indeed fall compared to the prior year: But by just over 30 per cent, not 60 per cent.
