When President Trump welcomes German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Washington on Friday, he will begin a new and potentially chillier relationship between the long-serving German leader and the third U.S. president to occupy the White House during her tenure.
Barack Obama and George W. Bush both enjoyed notably close relationships with Merkel during their presidencies. Obama's final phone call to a world leader went to Merkel in January, during which he thanked her and her husband for their personal friendship over the previous eight years.
Bush hosted Merkel at his ranch in Crawford, Texas in 2007 after inadvertently creating one of the first viral political videos the previous year by aggressively rubbing Merkel's shoulders at the G-8 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia.
But Trump has already demonstrated his willingness to question the value of institutions staunchly supported by Merkel, such as NATO and the European Union, which could complicate his relationship with the German leader.
Trump has been critical of Merkel personally in the past. He argued on Twitter in 2015 that she is "ruining Germany" and told a British publication earlier this year that her open-door refugee policy has become a "catastrophic mistake."
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04.29.2024