The first face-to-face meeting between German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and US President Donald Trump ended without any major complications. At the beginning of the meeting in the White House, Trump praised his German guest as a representative of a country with which he would have a „great relationship.“ In connection with a telephone call the President had made shortly beforehand with China’s head of state, Xi Jinping, Trump called Merz a „great leader“ and compared his election victory in the USA with that of the German Chancellor.