German Chancellor Insists He Defended Starmer To Trump

Friedrich Merz has claimed he privately defended Keir Starmer after Donald Trump attacked the UK prime minister in a joint press conference.

The US president said Starmer was “no Winston Churchill” in a scathing takedown while sat next to the German chancellor in the Oval Office on Tuesday.

He also threatened to escalate his trade war with Europe and “embargo” Spain for not spending more on defence.

The president is fuming after Starmer hesitated over a US request to use RAF military bases to target Iran, even though the PM granted the Americans access on Sunday night.

Trump is also irate after Spain flat out refused to let America use any of its military bases for the US and Iran’s joint strikes on Iran.

Amid his rants about the UK and Spain, the president warmly told the German chancellor – who does support the Iran strikes – he was a “friend” and doing a “really great job” as they chatted in front of the cameras on Tuesday.

Merz quickly came under fire for not defending his allies in the face of Trump’s criticisms and sitting in silence.

However, he later told the press that this was his strategy.

According to a translation from POLITICO, Merz said he had told Trump in private that Starmer “is making a really, very, very large, very, very valuable contribution” to joint European efforts to end the Ukraine war.

He supposedly told the president that he considers the criticism of Starmer “to be unjustified”.

He said: “I did this behind closed doors because, as I said, I did not want to play out the conflict on the open stage there.”

Merz insisted that “there is no way that Spain will be treated particularly badly” on trade, despite Trump’s threats, because Madrid remains a member of the EU.

The chancellor also claimed he had showed Trump a map of the front lines in Ukraine and believed “the president is now more understanding what is at stake for this country”.

In his hurry to secure a peace deal to end Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, the president has been trying to encourage Kyiv to give up more territory to appease Russia – a red line Ukraine has so far refused to cross.