President Trump is set to meet with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz next week in Washington, marking the first in-person meeting between the two leaders.
Merz, the leader of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who was elected as Germany’s leader in early March, is expected to visit Trump at the White House on Thursday, June 5, Germany government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said Saturday in a press release.
The discussions between the two countries’ leaders will focus on bilateral relations between the two, along with discussions around the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, developments in the Middle East and trade policy, according to Kornelius.
A White House official confirmed the meeting details to The Hill on Saturday.
Merz, similar to Trump, has been pushing for a ceasefire deal in the more than three-year-long war between Russia and Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a meeting with Merz on Wednesday in Berlin. There, Merz said that Germany will bolster its backing of Ukraine as part of a more than $5.5 billion agreement, including sending over more military equipment and increasing weapons manufacturing in Kyiv.
Germany’s chancellor has clashed with members of Trump’s administration over the country’s government marking the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party as an “extremist” political entity.
“Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That’s not democracy—it’s tyranny in disguise,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote earlier this month on social media platform X. “What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD—which took second in the recent election — but rather the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes.”
Vice President Vance piled on, accusing the government of trying to “destroy” AfD, which also considers tech billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk a strong supporter.
Merz has pushed back on Trump administration’s officials meddling in Germany’s domestic politics.
“We have largely stayed out of the American election campaign in recent years, and that includes me personally,” Merz said in an interview with Axel Springer Global Reporters Network that was published on May 7.
He added that he told U.S. officials that “we have not taken sides with either candidate. And I ask you to accept that in return.”