Merkel talks Iran, trade, defense spending with Trump

President Trump with German Chancellor Angela Merkel
(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with President Trump at the White House Friday, where the two leaders discussed the Iran deal, trade, and defense spending.

While Trump and Merkel have not enjoyed the close relationship the president has developed with other leaders, like French President Emmanuel Macron, in this visit they made a show of congeniality, with Trump speaking of his desire for a "reciprocal relationship" and calling Merkel an "extraordinary woman."

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On trade, Merkel indicated continued impasse. "The president will decide. That is very clear," she said of Trump's plans for steel and aluminum tariffs, which Merkel and other European leaders have sought to avoid.

Trump also repeated his long-time push for NATO Europe members to meet the 2 percent of GDP military spending goal the treaty requires. "Other countries should be paying more, and I'm not saying Germany alone," he said. "NATO is wonderful, but it helps Europe more than it helps us, and why are we paying the vast majority of the costs?"

Watch two excerpts of their comments below. Bonnie Kristian

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.