Today is the 81st anniversary of D-Day. Last year, they did huge commemoration events in Normandy and almost all of the world leaders came to pay homage to those who fought and lost their lives on the Day of Days. Ahead of the anniversary, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz visited the White House. He participated in one of those asinine photocalls in the Oval Office with Donald Trump on Thursday. Keep in mind, throughout much of Thursday, Trump was online, bitching about Elon Musk and threatening Musk with various punishments (the cancellation of government contracts, etc). In between the Musk-beef dramatics, Trump told Chancellor Merz that D-Day was “not a great day.”
President Donald Trump made a verbal stumble when meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House, calling D-Day “not a great day” on live TV. The chancellor quickly corrected him.
“May I remind you that we are having June 6th tomorrow,” Merz, 69, initially said as they discussed the war in Ukraine, which began when Russia invaded the smaller country in February 2022, with no provocation. The chancellor drew similarities between Russia’s invasion and World War II, in which the United States played a major role in ending the war.
“This is D-Day anniversary when the Americans once ended the war in Europe,” he continued, referencing the invasion of Normandy in 1944, which helped usher in the Allies’ victory months later. “And I think this is in your hands, specifically, in ours.”
“That was not a pleasant day for you?” interrupted Trump, 78, before turning to the cameras and adding, “This was not a great day.”
“Well, in the long run, Mr. President, this was the liberation of my country from Nazi dictatorship,” Merz responded of D-Day.
“That’s true,” responded Trump.
Just know I absolutely loathe to defend Trump about anything, but I had a brief moment of understanding him through his haze of senility. He was actually sort of attempting to show sympathy, like “oh, should I say this, so many German lives were lost on D-Day?” Chancellor Merz’s response was good though, and extremely poignant: “this was the liberation of my country from Nazi dictatorship.” I wish Americans could be liberated from our Nazi dictatorship.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
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- Washington, DC – Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany presents United States President Donald J Trump Merz with what he said is the birth certificate of the President’s grandfather, “Born in 1869,” in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. Pictured: Donald Trump, Friedrich Merz BACKGRID USA 5 JUNE 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, DC – Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany presents United States President Donald J Trump Merz with what he said is the birth certificate of the President’s grandfather, “Born in 1869,” in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. Pictured: Donald Trump, Friedrich Merz BACKGRID USA 5 JUNE 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, DC – Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany presents United States President Donald J Trump Merz with what he said is the birth certificate of the President’s grandfather, “Born in 1869,” in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. Pictured: Donald Trump, Friedrich Merz BACKGRID USA 5 JUNE 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
My god how we have fallen with this complete senile imbecile. I pray the end is near.
That is a very generous interpretation. I took it the same way as the German Chancellor did, from the very obvious and commonly utilised “loser” undertone from Trump.
You can see how slow his mind works as he was listening; “oh yeah, we won that war! Against…. Germany?… And this is the German Chancellor… so we beat him!” And then the supercilious and horrifically inane comment.
I agree that that interpretation is too generous, and frankly far-fetched given what Trump seems to not know about history. I doubt he really knows what happened on D-day – it seems like he just makes a couple odd, slurring comments every once when meeting with real world leaders.
Oh, this makes me so angry. I could say so much.
Merz’s reply here reminds me of a great line delivered by Stanley tucci in the first captain America movie: the first country the nazis invaded was their own.
I’m always torn with about the framing, that the nazis invaded germany. The majority had no problem with the nazis, as long as they were not affected themselves.
Hitler aquired power leagaly with the help of the conservertives, there was no sudden coup ot anything, there was a graduate taking of power that was accepted by the conservatives an a silent majority as long as they profited.
Painting Germany as invaded by nazis absolves those who keept quiet from their responsibility.
My grabdparents where those kind of germans, until the end they claimed, that not everything was bad at the beginnend, jobs, autobahnen ect. how should they have known that Hitler would actually do what he said? Killing billions of innocent people and starting a world war.
Those who stayed quiet or supported Hitler for monetary gain where not invaded, they where responsible.
And forgetting or absolving this resposibility means risking a repeat.
Lara that’s the way I see it.
A lot of German citizens had gripes and the national social party appealed to that. They didn’t vote on everything that was done but to pretend like the nazi party just bulldozed their way in is a doorway for it to happen again.
I think that’s the point here: most German citizens let the cancer of Nazism invade/attack Germany.
And of course the most chilling aspect of this perspective now is that it is exactly what’s happening in the US:
We are letting a cancerous fascist totalitarian party grow and take over, and decades from now younger generations will make the same claims: they (meaning we, us, sadly including everyone reading my comment now, even though obviously this audience is anti-Trump, bc decades from now, since the majority is complicit with Trump, we will all look just as complicit as the German citizens who didn’t stop Hitler) let it happen bc they thought it would only impact immigrants, or trans folks, or they wanted cheaper eggs so they let MAGAism take over the country…
I certainly want to be liberated from Trump’s Nazi circus and the new hell he creates daily. Then there is an ever increasing list of awfulness that he has had done to the White House, like that truly terrible gold ormolu thing that he thinks is the epitome of class. Next he’ll want the Resolute desk spray painted gold!
Merz of all people mentioning the liberation of Germany.
He’s a misogynistic, xenophobic far-right politician, who proudly defended his Nazi grandfather — who was a Nazi mayor somewhere in FM’s home state, and did despicable things — not too long ago.
Don’t get me started on him not minding a collaboration with the fascist Alternative for Germany (AfD) earlier this year, or his party actually working together with the AfD on communal and state levels.
He’s already been a chancellor for too long, as he managed to damage Germany’s reputation and standing within the EU in the four weeks he’s been in office.
Merz is in a bad spot. Germany is being bankrupted from within and everyone sees it. Yet, it’s hard to stop. I think the Germans are at the point of Try Anything to stave it off. They have slashed the budget, quietly, many times in the last few years.
Nanea, I’m fascinated by this history, of which I confess ignorance. Can you say more about Merz’s grandfather? I am curious not because I imagine he’s a replica of another person, who lived in another time, but he’s attempting to do things that are mutually contradictory: he’s trying to outmanoeuvre the AfD much in the way the Conservatives here have chased the voters who support Farage and Reform, all whilst touting the transatlantic alliance and NATO. The problem is, there is a contradiction here: both the far right and the far left are skeptical of globalisation, multilateral institutions, the EU, the “free world” and military commitments that embroil us with Russia. Germany and the US have both seen centrist politicians and parties crater and have seen the rise of far-out parties and politicians. The UK and France have managed to hold onto the centre with more success, relatively speaking. Brexit was a kick in the head and people learned their lesson. I think Trump’s damage to the economy will make it much easier for the Democrats to nominate a more authentic leftist than — say — Hilary Clinton or Kamala Harris, neither of whom connected with voters in swing states at all. Those states tend to be on an economic cliff edge. Germany is the same way: the combination of Trump’s tariffs, NATO spending, and the loss of cheap Russian energy are set to do serious damage to the German economy. Which makes it not unlikely the next election will see the largest voting bloc in the Bundestag accruing to the AfD. Interesting times.
Although 47’s stupidity has always been truly and breathtakingly astounding, I’m really starting to think his dementia is accelerating more each passing day. Bc who in their right mind would make such a comment? Or make any of the stupid comments he’s made? This is the “man” who, according to his first wife, slept w/ a copy of Mein Kampf on his bedside table. But he continually displays his ignorance of US and world history/geopolitics and his minions pretend his comments and stupid policies are totally normal. But his cognitive decline is getting harder and harder to hide.
The MSM remains quiet and complicit as we still get stupid articles about Biden while they refuse to report 47’s many issues and yet they’re still bewildered by their growing lack of viewers as most ppl are now getting their news elsewhere, like YouTube. Even Fox FakeNews is losing viewers.
My father was in DDay +3. He had a Purple Heart. Without America, Europe would have lost the war. I am very proud of his service.
Donald Trump’s father left Germany to avoid conscription. His son avoided service too.
They are bums.
I’m always so impressed with and thankful of those that came after the initial landing. They knew what they were facing and still they went. We owe them so much.
Including kicking these Nazi-loving losers out as soon as we can.
As a German, I thank your father for his service and his effort to free my country. My own family has suffered greatly in the war, the after-effects still very much impacting us today. i can’t imagine what would have happened if the war had continued.
The first line in the People article was no “verbal stumble”. Trump said exactly what he thinks, whether it was intentional or the dementia lifting all inhibitions. He admires Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler. To him, the beginning of the end of Nazi rule over Europe and Germany was “not a great day”. Yes, he lies a lot but sometimes the truth slips out. And now we are the ones who need to be liberated from Nazi rule.
I agree and I hated when they did this to Biden.
Biden was not having a “moment”. He was answering a question in his politician way. I understood Biden perfectly. These journalists need to review things through neutral lens.
Trump is such a boob.
Donald Trump sees everything through the lens of “winners” and “losers,” so it makes sense he sees any day that was an Allied (American, in his mind) success over the Nazis as a “bad” day for Germans.
What he doesn’t understand is that most Germans were prisoners to the Nazi takeover, just as so many well-meaning, well-intended, decent Americans have no power to stop what Trump and the MAGA/MAHA exteremists are doing to, with, and on behalf of the country right now.
So when the Nazis were defeated, the German people won. They were liberated. Hitler, the Nazi party, and the Axis were the “team,” the “brand,” the “movement,” they weren’t “Germans.” It shows Trump’s ignorance of anything but the “headlines” in history and how he sees “Germany” not Germans, “Africa” not Africans, and, yes, “America” not Americans. He sees “teams” and “groups” (often way oversimplified, see “Africa”) that can win or lose, not the real people whose lives are affected along the way.
Love that Merz gave the Toddler a copy of his grandfather’s birth certificate. Nice reminder that Trump is just another immigrant family and Fred was an anchor baby.
Trump is filth.
Kaiser…. There is no. “But….” With regards to 47. He does not get that latitude.
Apparently Merz was very worried that he was to be ambushed like Zelensky and Ramaphosa and had to prepare like crazy beforehand.
He always sits so strangely – like he’s on the “ throne”
I hate myself for saying this, but the real Nazis are next in line. They will dispose of Trump as they wish and then it will be age of the Evangelicals, if we don’t find a way to unify and stop it.