Watch: During the Merz meeting, Trump says it might be better to leave Ukraine and Russia “fight for a while”

Washington (AP) – President Donald Trump said Thursday that it would be better to leave Ukraine and Russia “fight for a while” before separating them and continuing peace.

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In an oval office meeting with the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump compared the war in Ukraine – which Russia invaded in early 2022 – to a fight between two young children who hated themselves.

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“Sometimes you better let them fight for a while, then separate them,” said Trump. He added that he had relayed this analogy with Russian President Vladimir Putin in their telephone conversation on Wednesday.

Asked about Trump’s comments while the two leaders sat sits side by side, Merz stressed that he and Trump agreed “on this war and how terrible this war was taking place”, showing the American president as the “key person” who could stop the bloodshed.

But Merz also pointed out that Germany “was on the side of Ukraine” and that kyiv only attacked military targets, and not Russian civilians.

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“We are trying to make them stronger,” said Merz about Ukraine.

Thursday’s meeting scored the first time that the two leaders sat in person. After exchanging jokes – Merz gave Trump a golden birth certificate of the Grandfather of the US President Friedrich Trump, who immigrated from Germany – the two leaders had to discuss questions such as Ukraine, NATO trade and expenses.

Trump and Merz spoke several times by phone, either bilaterally or with other European leaders, since Merz took office on May 6. German officials say that the two leaders began to build a “decent” relationship, Merz wanting to avoid the antagonism that defined the relationship of Trump’s president.

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Merz, 69 years old – who came to power with vast commercial experience – is a former conservative rival of Merkel who resumed his party after his retirement from politics.

A White House official said that Trump is likely to raise with Merz includes Germany’s defense spending, trade, Ukraine and what the responsible for the “Democratic recovery”, affirming that the administration is that shared values ​​such as freedom of expression have deteriorated in Germany and that the country should reverse the course. The manager spoke under the cover of anonymity to preview the discussions.

But Merz told journalists on Thursday morning that if Trump wanted to talk about German internal policy, he was ready to do so, but he also stressed that Germany is concerned with regard to American domestic policy.

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Merz embarked on diplomacy in Ukraine, going to kyiv with his colleagues European leaders after taking office and received Zelenskyy in Berlin last week. He thanked Trump for his support for an unconditional ceasefire while rejecting the idea of ​​”dictated peace” or the “subjugation” of Ukraine and pleading for more sanctions against Russia.

During their first telephone call since Merz became Chancellor, Trump said that he would support the efforts of Germany and other European countries to reach peace, according to a reading of the German government. Merz also said last month that “it is of paramount importance that the political West is not divided, so I will continue to do everything possible to produce the greatest possible unit between European and American partners.”

Under the immediate predecessor of Merz, Olaf Scholz, Germany has become the second largest military aid provider in Ukraine after the United States. Merz has promised to maintain support and last week is committed to helping Ukraine to develop its own long -range missile systems that would be free from any beach limit.

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In his remarks Thursday, Trump has always left the threat of sanctions on the table. He said sanctions could be imposed for both Ukraine and Russia.

“When I see the moment when it will not stop … We will be very, very difficult,” said Trump.

At home, the Merz government intensifies a journey that Scholz began to strengthen the German army after Russia launched its large -scale invasion of Ukraine. The first term of Trump, Berlin was a target of his anger for not having reached NATO’s current objective of spending 2% of the gross domestic product in defense, and Trump now requests at least 5% of allies.

The White House official said that the next NATO summit in the Netherlands later this month is a “good opportunity” for Germany to undertake to reach this 5%bar.

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Scholz has created a special fund of 100 billion euros ($ 115 billion) to modernize the armed forces of Germany – called Bundeswehr – which had suffered from years of negligence. Germany reached the target of 2% thanks to the fund, but it will be used in 2027.

Merz said that “the government will provide all the funding in the future that the Bundeswehr needs to become the strongest conventional army in Europe”. It has approved a plan for all allies to spend 3.5% of GDP on their defense budgets by 2032, more an additional 1.5% on defense -related things such as infrastructure.

Another absolute priority for Merz is to obtain the German economy, the largest in Europe, moving again after decreasing in the past two years. He wants to make it a “growth locomotive”, but Trump’s pricing threats are a potential obstacle to a country whose exports have been a key strength. Currently, the economy should stagnate in 2025.

Germany exported $ 160 billion in the United States last year, according to the census office. It was about 85 billion dollars more than the United States sent to Germany, a trade deficit that Trump wants to erase.

“Germany is one of the very major investors in America,” Merz told journalists on Thursday morning. “Only a few countries invest more than Germany in the United States. We are in third place in terms of foreign direct investment. ”

The American president specifically continued the German automotive sector, which includes major brands such as Audi, BMW, Mercedes Benz, Porsche and Volkswagen. The Americans bought $ 36 billion in cars, trucks and car parts in Germany last year, while the Germans bought a value of $ 10.2 billion in vehicles and parts in the United States

The 25% price of Trump on cars and parts is specifically designed to increase the cost of German manufacturing cars in the hope of moving their factories in the United States, even if many companies already have plants in the United States with Volkswagen in Tennessee, BMW in South Carolina and Mercedes-Benz in Alabama and South Carolina.

There are only many Merz to realize in his opinion that the prices “do not benefit anyone and do not damage everyone” in Washington, because commercial negotiations are a question for the executive commission of the European Union. Trump recently delayed a planned rate of 50% on goods from the European Union, which would otherwise have entered into force this month.

A source of tension in recent months is a speech that Vice-President JD Vance pronounced in Munich shortly before the German elections in February, in which he gave conferences to European leaders on the state of democracy on the continent and declared that there was no room for “firewalls”.

This term is frequently used to describe the refusal of traditional German parties to work with the extreme right alternative for Germany, which has finished second in the elections and is now the largest opposition party.

Merz criticized the comments. He told Ard Television last month that it was not the place of an American vice-president “to tell us something like that in Germany; I would not do it in America either.”

Moulson reported in Berlin. The writer Associated Press Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.