President Donald Trump, proper, meets Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz within the Oval Workplace of the White Home on Thursday.
Evan Vucci/AP
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Evan Vucci/AP
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump mentioned Thursday that it is perhaps higher to let Ukraine and Russia “struggle for some time” earlier than pulling them aside and pursuing peace, at the same time as Germany’s new chancellor appealed to him because the “key individual on this planet” who might halt the bloodshed by pressuring Vladimir Putin.
In an Oval Workplace assembly with Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the U.S. president likened the conflict in Ukraine — which Russia invaded in February 2022 — to a struggle between two kids who hate one another. Trump mentioned that with kids, “typically you are higher off letting them struggle for some time after which pulling them aside,” including that he relayed the analogy to Putin in a name this week.
“I mentioned, ‘President, possibly you are going to must hold preventing and struggling so much,’ as a result of either side are struggling earlier than you pull them aside, earlier than they’re capable of be pulled aside,” Trump mentioned. “You see in hockey, you see it in sports activities. The referees allow them to go for a few seconds, allow them to go for a short time earlier than you pull them aside.”
The feedback had been a exceptional detour from Trump’s often-stated appeals to cease the violence in Ukraine — and he once more denounced the bloodshed Thursday at the same time as he floated the likelihood that the 2 international locations ought to proceed the conflict for a time. Merz rigorously sidestepped Trump’s assertions and emphasised that the U.S. and Germany each agree on “how horrible this conflict is,” whereas ensuring to put blame squarely on Putin for the violence and make the purpose that Germany was siding with Ukraine.
“We’re each searching for methods to cease it very quickly,” Merz mentioned within the Oval Workplace. “I advised the president earlier than we got here in that he’s the important thing individual on this planet who can actually try this now by placing stress on Russia.”
Thursday’s assembly was the primary time the 2 leaders sat down in individual, and Merz left the general public portion unscathed as he efficiently averted the form of made-for-TV confrontation within the Oval Workplace that befell different world leaders similar to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa. Trump and Merz started by exchanging pleasantries — Merz gave Trump a gold-framed beginning certificates of the U.S. president’s grandfather Friedrich Trump, who emigrated to America from Kallstadt, Germany, and Trump known as the chancellor a “superb man to take care of.”
“He is tough, I’d say? Can I say that? It is a optimistic. You would not need me to say you are straightforward, proper?” Trump mentioned, gently ribbing Merz. “He is a really nice consultant of Germany.”
Merz advised German reporters after the White Home assembly that he had invited Trump to go to Germany, “his dwelling nation,” and added that the 2 leaders “get alongside effectively on the private degree.”
Trump and Merz had beforehand spoken a number of occasions by cellphone since Merz took workplace on Might 6. German officers say the 2 leaders have began to construct a “respectable” relationship. Merz averted the antagonism that outlined Trump’s relationship with one among his predecessors, Angela Merkel, within the Republican president’s first time period.
Merz emphasizes Ukraine assist
The 69-year-old Merz — who got here to workplace with an in depth enterprise background — is a conservative former rival of Merkel’s who took over her social gathering after she retired from politics.
Merz has thrown himself into diplomacy on Ukraine, touring to Kyiv with fellow European leaders days after taking workplace and receiving Zelenskyy in Berlin final week. He has thanked Trump for his assist for an unconditional ceasefire whereas rejecting the thought of “dictated peace” or the “subjugation” of Ukraine and advocating for extra sanctions towards Russia.
