German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he wouldn’t recommend his children work in the United States due to its “social climate,” a comment which risks further angering President Donald Trump.Merz has drawn the wrath of Trump over the past few weeks over several negative remarks he’s made about the U.S., including that Iran was “humiliating” Washington. He took another swipe at the U.S. at a Catholic Congress in Wurzburg, Germany, saying that American society was deteriorating.“I am a great admirer of America,” he said. “My admiration isn’t growing at the moment. So, I wouldn’t recommend to my children today that they go to the U.S., get an education there, and work there. Simply because of a social climate that has suddenly developed there.
“By the way, the question of what well-educated young people can achieve used to be answered very differently in America up until a year ago than it is today,” Merz said. “Today, the best-educated in America have great difficulty finding a job.”
News of the comments could torpedo the goodwill cultivated through a phone call he had with Trump on the president’s flight back from China, which he posted about on X.
“I had a good phone call with @POTUS Donald Trump on his way back from China,” Merz said after the call. “We agree: Iran must come to the negotiating table now. It must open the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons. We also discussed a peaceful solution for Ukraine and coordinated our positions ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara. The U.S. and Germany are strong partners in a strong NATO.”
