Meeting between Merz and Trump: Sloppy office looks, embarrassing presents – the style criticism

The Chancellor has an idiosyncratic taste in decor. "I'd love to keep it for myself," Merz purrs into his cell phone camera, his gaze fixed tenderly on a picture. The clip was shot on the government plane to Washington and is currently circulating on YouTube; the wall decoration in question is the framed certificate that Merz will present to Donald Trump a few hours later.

It's a copy of the birth certificate of the US President's grandfather, Friedrich Trump, a Merz namesake, born in Kallstadt in 1869, a true Palatinate native. Not a mere A4 copy, at least, that some Chancellor's Office intern had printed out at a Berlin copy shop. No, "the Federal Foreign Office made it like that, with this calligraphy, truly sensational," Merz chimes. "I'd love to keep it for myself!"

But a wall spot in his own office at Willy-Brandt-Straße 1? Perhaps hanging it above his fireplace in Arnsberg-Niedereimer? Unfortunately, that won't happen – Donald Trump actually wants to keep the gift. "Thank you, that's beautiful, fantastic," he says when Merz finally presents him with the gold-framed document in Washington on Thursday. And: "We'll hang it in a place of honor!"

Where exactly? We have an idea: Perhaps right next to the other copy of his grandfather's birth certificate, which Trump received from another source a few years ago. After all, Kai Diekmann, the former head of Bild, had already given Donald Trump the same gift: He had "brought a copy of the birth certificate to Trump for our interview in 2017, at the beginning of his first term," as he proudly tweeted on X on Thursday evening. Axel Springer apparently has a similarly bad hand for gifts as the German Foreign Office.

Someone is happy: Merz's visit to Washington went off without a Zelensky moment. dpa

After all, how often, in how many speeches, on how many occasions do we actually want to mention that Trump also has German roots? When will we finally abandon the misconception that this completely unexciting fact, which incidentally applies to approximately 40 to 50 million Americans, or roughly 12 percent of the entire US population, could have a positive impact on relations between the president and the Germans?

Friedrich Merz, in any case, isn't giving up: "The fact that you're also from Germany, your family, is a good omen for our cooperation," he says at the press briefing in the Oval Office, a faint hope similar to one Merkel and Scholz had expressed before him. But this lack of imagination is just a minor episode in a rather uneventful meeting; the fact that the souvenir turns out to be an embarrassing duplicate at least adds a bit of tension later on.

Finally, unlike Zelensky's sweater scandal a few weeks ago, there isn't much to say about the outfits of the two statesmen: Merz in a dark suit, Trump in a dark suit, Merz with a tiny patterned tie, Trump with a republican red tie, Merz with his famous hair island, Trump with his infamous candy floss hairstyle.

Among men: Trump practices his swinging tee shot in his "Real Housewives" office. Imago

So back to the gifts: Both Kai Diekmann back then and Merz now brought even more gifts. Diekmann, as he reports on X, had brought Trump—sensation!—a piece of the Berlin Wall, at least not one of those concrete crumbs you can still buy today in the souvenir shops around Checkpoint Charlie, but a truly heavy piece of the Wende, signed by Gorbachev, Bush, and Kohl.

And Friedrich Merz? He even brought a golf club for his almost-fellow countryman—what a mindless gift, one that, in its decidedly masculine bravado, would have been surpassed only by the ceremonial presentation of an expensive watch, a rare cigar, or a year's subscription to Playboy.

But you can certainly score points with Trump with such old-boy gifts; he's known to be a golf fan, just like Merz. So, before long, swinging shots are being practiced in front of the kitsch "Real Housewives" backdrop of the Oval Office—what a magnificent expression of German-American male friendship.

At least Kai Diekmann thinks it's a good thing: "No Zelensky moment in the Oval Office!" he cheers on X. The Chancellor "clearly and confidently on equal footing" with the President. "Respect and congratulations to Friedrich Merz on this success on his most important trip to date!"