German Chancellor Friedrich Merz escalated a high-profile spat with President Donald Trump on Friday, saying he wouldn’t advise children to study or work in the United States under the president’s leadership.
“I would not recommend to my children today that they go to the U.S. to get an education and to work,” Merz said at a Catholic Congress panel in the city of Wuerzburg, citing concerns about the “social climate” that has developed in the country under the second Trump administration.
“Even the best educated in America have great difficulty in finding a job,” said Merz.
The remarks are likely to further strain Merz’s already tense relationship with Trump. Last month, the German chancellor criticized the president’s Iran war strategy as having “humiliated” the United States, arguing that Washington “quite obviously went into this war without any strategy.”
“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about!” Trump fumed on Truth Social.
Merz, who has three children and seven grandchildren, said on Friday he remains a “great admirer of America,” but added that “right now my admiration is not increasing.”
“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,” he added.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
Since returning to office for a second term last January, Trump has alienated the United States from many of its allies with a string of controversial moves, including slapping tariffs of up to 50 percent on steel and aluminum imports last summer. The president boasted that the move would provide a “big jolt” to U.S. industry.
He has also angered allies with his repeated declarations that the U.S. should seize Greenland, the semiautonomous island that is part of Denmark and houses a U.S. Space Force base.
The growing international unease toward Trump’s leadership has also been reflected in recent polling. A Gallup poll conducted in 2025 across more than 130 countries and released last month found that approval of U.S. leadership declined by 10 points or more in 44 countries between 2024 and 2025, with the steepest declines concentrated among U.S. allies, including many members of NATO.
Germany recorded the largest drop, with approval of U.S. leadership falling by 39 points, followed by Portugal, down 38 points. Other traditional U.S. allies, including the U.K., Italy, and Canada, also saw significant drops in their approval of Trump’s leadership.
