Other world leaders congratulated Chancellor Merkel on winning the election at the start of the week. The US president took four days to offer his congratulations.
Image: Reuters/C.Barria
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US President Donald Trump on Thursday congratulated German Chancellor Angela Merkel on her election victory.
The phone call came a notably long time after the German election on Sunday. Other world leaders congratulated the chancellor at the beginning of the week.
"President Donald J. Trump spoke today with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany to congratulate her on her election victory and wish her well in the formation of her fourth government," said a statement from the White House on Thursday evening.
Trump underscored the "deep ties" between the nations as well as Washington's "commitment to our longstanding, strong alliance."
After the Election: What Now Frau Merkel?
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Four days versus one
When Trump was elected president in 2016, Merkel's congratulations came a day later, compared to the four days it took Trump. Her congratulations were somewhat reserved at the time, however.
"Germany and America are bound by their values: democracy, freedom, the respect for the law and the dignity of human beings, independent of their origin, skin color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or political position," she wrote in 2016. "On the basis of these values, I offer the future president of the United States, Donald Trump, close cooperation."
Trump has been a frequent critic of Merkel, attacking her for Germany's trade surplus with the US, her open-door refugee policy and what he considers to be too-low defense spending.
During the German election campaign, Trump and his policies were implicitly criticized by the German leader.
Conversation dominated by North Korea
On Thursday Merkel's government spokesman, Steffen Seibert, confirmed the call in a post on Twitter, saying the bulk of the conversation focused on relations with North Korea and the Iran nuclear agreement.
Speaking on the Iranian nuclear deal that Trump has heavily criticized in the past, Merkel said it was an "important instrument" to prevent Iran from arming itself with nuclear weapons. The Chancellor agreed with Trump that Iran's "negative role" in Syria and Lebanon, as well as its failure to recognize Israel's right to exist were "unacceptable." She agreed that the Iranian missile program violated UN Security Council's directives.
Merkel's CDU party won 33 percent of the vote after 12 years of Merkel at the helm. The CDU is currently in negotiations to form a coalition government.
aw/rc (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)
Germany's colorful coalition shorthand
Foreign flags and even traffic lights are used to describe the various coalitions that emerge in German elections. Coalitions are common under Germany's proportional representation system.
Image: Getty Images
'Traffic light' coalition — Red, Yellow, Green
Since 2021 Germany has been governed by a center-left coalition of Social Democrats (SPD), ecologist Greens, and free-market-oriented neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP), whose color is yellow. They started out as a self-declared "Fortschrittskoalition" (progress coalition) but got mired in infighting along the way.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/J.Büttner
Black-red coalition
The Conservative's black combined with transformative red is the color code when the Christian Democrats govern in a "grand coalition" with the Social Democrats. This combination of Germany's two big tent parties, was in power for eight years until 2021, led by then-Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Image: picture-alliance/R. Goldmann
'Pizza Connection' — precursor to Black and Green
When Bonn was still Germany's capital, conservative and Greens lawmakers started meeting informally in an Italian restaurant, in what became known as the 'Pizza Connection.' At the regional level, Baden-Württemburg's Greens-CDU coalition has governed since 2016 and Germany's most populous state of North-Rhine Westphalia has had a Black-Green government since 2022.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
'Jamaica' option — black, yellow and green
A three-way deal between the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), the Greens and the neoliberal Free Democrats FDP), whose color is yellow did not come about at national level in 2017 after the FDP called off talks. It has been tested at a state level, where Schleswig-Holstein had a "Jamaica" government until they went Black-Green in 2022.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/dpaweb
Black, Red, Green — like Kenya's flag
The eastern German state of Saxony has been governed by a coalition of CDU, SPD and Greens, headed by the state's popular Premier Michael Kretschmer. He is hoping to be able to stay in power despite the rise of the right-wing extremist Alternative for Germany (AfD) which is campaigning on an anti-immigrant and anti-NATO agenda.
Image: Fotolia/aaastocks
The Germany coalition — Black, Red and Yellow
The eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt has been governed by a coalition led by the CDU's popular Premier Rainer Haseloff. He has teamed up with the SPD and the FDP. The alliance of unlikely bedfellows was the only viable option to ward off the threat by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Image: Hoffmann/Caro/picture alliance
Black and Orange
Since 2018 Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU) has been governing with the Free Voters (FV), whose color is Orange. The FV is a grass-roots populist and far-right-leaning party and is led by its controversial chairman Hubert Aiwanger. Strong in rural areas of southern and eastern Germany, the Freie Wähler is seeking a larger role at the national level and currently has three MEPs.
Image: Privat
Violet and Black?
In graphics showing opinion polls, the new Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) is shown in violet. That may be fitting, as it combines socialist, far-left (red) with populist right wing (blue) ideas in its platform. Although the party was only founded in 2024, it is doing so well in the eastern German states that it may well be asked to join coalition governments. Possibly led by the CDU (Black).
