US has ‘squandered’ its claim to world leadership under Trump, German chancellor Merz suggests

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/merz-trump-nato-munich-conference-b2919926.html

509 points · 36 comments · view on lemmy.world

36 Comments

Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca · 87 pts · 190d (3 replies)

Merz is just jealous. How many FIFA Peace Prizes and Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal awards does he have, hmmmm?

foodandart@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 190d

LOL! Well! That's one way of loking at it!

You may be correct.

b_tr3e@feddit.org · 4 pts · 190d

He's just to cheap to buy any - and not aggressively corrupt enough to get them for free.

D_C@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 190d

None, but he does have a few no belt peas prizes.
And we all know how much the murderous war mongering orange child rapist wants one of them!!

ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net · 30 pts · 190d (8 replies)

And Germany squandered the claim to EU leadership by pretending Russia is not a threat as long as it can provide cheap gas.

b_tr3e@feddit.org · -60 pts · 190d (7 replies)

Russia is still not a threat.

ninjabard@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 190d (5 replies)

So, everything happening in Ukraine is a simulation?

b_tr3e@feddit.org · -32 pts · 190d (4 replies)

Idk why I am answering to you at all as you know what I mean. Russia is not a threat to Europe. Feel free to feel threatened. I just don't buy it.

rajano@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 190d

On what continent is the nation of Ukraine? How can you say Russia is not a threat to Europe when it is literally attacking Europe right now?

0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 190d

I mean the nuclear weapons Russia has are clearly a threat, no?

ammonium@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 190d

Depends on what you do mean by Europe. Yes Russia is not a direct threat to Spain or Italy. But for the Baltics it's an immediate threat. They might invade by next year. Yes, that would be utterly stupid, but so was invading Ukraine and they still did it. Poland will be next if they are successful in the Baltics and Ukraine. (Which they will if we don't support them)

The worst thing we can do is ignore the threat just because it would be stupid for them to do it. When someone threatens you, take them serious. Especially if they have done something similar before.

MadhuGururajan@programming.dev · 0 pts · 189d

oh look b_tr3e is not threatened! That's it guys we are wasting time convincing European government leaders when all it took was for b_tr3e to be brave! Of course, b_tr3e is the person that needs to be convinced.. as they make policy from portugal to Ukraine. Nobody cares about this comedian Zelensky or Polish parliament.

ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net · 22 pts · 190d

The war in Ukraine had no economical impact on Europe? Russia is not using hybrid warfare to destabilize Poland and the Baltic States? It's not attacking infrastructure across Europe? It's not funding extremists in order to destabilize EU? You're either blind or not very smart.

MrSulu@lemmy.ml · 20 pts · 190d (1 reply)

"Squandered" is so imprecise. Perhaps more accurately described as "nuked.".

b_tr3e@feddit.org · 14 pts · 190d

By Merz' standards "squandered" is hell of a statement. He really dared to critisize his American overlords and employers. Actually that's nothing I'd have expected even remotely.

Lembot_0006@programming.dev · 20 pts · 190d (7 replies)

Trump: squandi-schwandy, but I am now a few beautiful billions richer. Suck covfefe!

newthrowaway20@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 190d (4 replies)

He's billions richer. But he's also caused what feels to me like the fastest devaluation of the dollar and rapid loss of purchasing power for Americans.

So we all lose and he makes a small fortune.

It's only been 1 year too.

School_Lunch@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 190d (3 replies)

I had a thought the other day that I'm not nearly financially literate enough to know how true it is, but with all the talk about stocks going up, couldn't that be an effect of the dollar going down?

wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 6 pts · 190d

I've been saying for a long time that a catastrophic market crash is the only way for the US dollar to return to a reasonable purchasing power.

If it's not catastrophic, big financiers will just buy in the dip and then further consolidate the wealth of the nation while things climb back up. When I say catastrophic, I mean irrecoverably. I mean the concept of Wall Street needs to disappear due to how complete and total the stock market crash is.

People just call me a sociopath and say "think of the 401ks!" Yeah, well, toxic system has to break sooner or later, and we've been kicking that can down the road long enough. People who are heavily invested in that system shouldn't be protected from feeling the consequences of a tower stacked too high.

twack@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 190d

That was my take as well. Anyone with large real estate or other investment portfolios is treading water while those who don't are sinking without directly realizing why.

mattyroses@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 190d

Yes. You need to look at the cost of stocks in constant dollars to avoid measuring inflation.

My_IFAKs___gone@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 190d (1 reply)

It seems like he's quite bad at keeping a fortune once made. Wouldn't surprise me to see those billions evaporate from whence they came.

Lembot_0006@programming.dev · 5 pts · 190d

Don't worry about him. He's quite good at doing whatever he wants and avoiding responsibility for that. He will take another few billions if these would "evaporate". Just will come to the treasury and say: give me a few billions and a big cup of icecream. And a pony.

Flatworm7591@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 16 pts · 190d (1 reply)

I totally agree Trump has largely destroyed US influence (for the moment), but then again Merz is part of the Israeli genocide club, so he's hardly a paragon of leadership himself.

The German government has consistently denied that a genocide is taking place in Gaza. In December 2024, after Amnesty International released a report accusing Israel of genocide, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Sebastian Fischer stated that "genocide presupposes a clear intention to eradicate an ethnic group. I still do not recognize any such clear intention."

In early December 2025, Merz visited Israel and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog. The discussions focused on solidifying German support for Israel, the ongoing Gaza conflict, the peace process, and a major arms deal.

[...]

Another point of contention appears to have eased. While Merz acknowledged that certain Israeli military actions in Gaza put Germany in a "dilemma" and urged Israel to respect international law, he stressed that the decision to suspend arms deliveries was a one-time measure.

Germany suspended the delivery of some arms to Israel in August amid growing concerns over civilian casualties in Gaza. The suspension was lifted in November following the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Defense cooperation remains a cornerstone of German-Israeli ties despite the war in Gaza, which a UN committee has labeled genocide — a charge rejected by Israel.

Notably, Israel has outright rejected Germany's preferred two-state solution, continues to kill Palestinians at an alarming rate despite the so-called "ceasefire", and continues turn a blind eye to Zionist settlers murdering Palestinians living in the West Bank. But Merz went ahead and lifted his 4-month long arms embargo so that weapons and profit could keep flowing.

psycocan@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 190d

Germany is the second arms supplier for genocidal Israel. Fuck Merz

DarkFuture@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 190d

Thanks conservatives.

Not that any are intelligent enough to figure out how to get on Lemmy.

BetaBlake@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 190d

Yeah maybe but at least the dow is over 50,000

So suck it

Bustedknuckles@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 190d (1 reply)

Well, yeah. I hope someone better than us takes over

explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 190d

We can do better than this; we can decentralize. Returning the power to the people is not a power vacuum.

CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org · 3 pts · 190d (3 replies)

If you're the US circa 2015 and decide to be evil, it would have been entirely doable to lull Europe into a false sense of security, and then occupy some or all of it overnight in a surprise attack. Instead, Trump did the opposite. Europe is the opposite of lulled, and the status of the actual invasion is TACO.

People on here hope Trump gets shot, but for the same reasons they should actually hope he finishes his term.

III@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 190d (2 replies)

The idea that the corrupt conservative network that continues to empower Trump will collapse without him is laughable. These people aren't beholden to that orange idiot. They will lose the person who brought them here but they have long been ensuring they won't need him once he has gone. And those people aren't nearly as inept as Trump.

mattyroses@lemmy.today · 7 pts · 190d

Trump is the symptom, not the disease

cmbabul@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 190d

Glad I’m not alone in seeing the grim reality we face

thirdworldistWMD@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 190d

[ removed ]

melsaskca@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 190d

The USA is so "last 250 years". What's next?

Chais@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 189d

Not that there was ever a legitimate claim.

Paragone@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 188d

FFS: