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
Advertisement
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?
26:00
This browser does not support the video element.
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
Black-red coalition
The Conservatives black combined with the traditional red of the political left 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 first from 1966-69 and most recently for eight years until 2021, led by then-Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Image: Odermann/IMAGO
Black and Green
The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has teamed up with the ecologist Greens in several German states cooperating smoothly at the regional level. On the national level the two parties see eye to eye especially on strong support for Ukraine. They disagree on nuclear and renewable energy, and many conservatives despise the Greens for their multicultural and "woke" positions.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Black, Red, Green — like Kenya's flag
The center-right CDU/CSU could also team up with the Greens and the center-left SPD. This three-way coalition would be an option for a comfortable majority. It has been tested on a regional level: The eastern German state of Saxony was governed by such a coalition until 2024.
Image: Fotolia/aaastocks
The Germany coalition — Black, Red and Yellow
The neoliberal FDP has been a junior coalition partner to both the center-right CDU/CSU and the center-left SPD. A three-way coalition was forged on the state level, for example in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt. While this combination was touted as a possibility ahead of the 2025 vote, the FDP failed to get into parliament, ruling it out from any coalition building.
Image: Hoffmann/Caro/picture alliance
'Traffic light' coalition — Red, Yellow, Green
From 2021-2025 Germany was governed by a center-left coalition of Social Democrats (SPD), ecologist Greens, and free-market-oriented neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP), whose color is yellow. The government known as "Ampel" (traffic light) in Germany, started out as a self-declared "Fortschrittskoalition" (progress coalition) but got mired in infighting and became the least popular government ever.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/J.Büttner
'Jamaica' option — black, yellow and green
A three-way combination of Christian Democrats (CDU), the Greens and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP), has been tested at a regional level. But the FDP and Greens described their positions as irreconcilable following the collapse of the center-left government in November 2024. With the FDP's defeat in the 2025 election it will not be an option on the national level for the foreseeable future
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/dpaweb
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
Blackberry Coalition
CDU (black), SPD (red) and BSW (violet). The new Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance's (BSW) color violet, seems 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 did so well in the eastern German states that it entered a coalition government with the SPD and CDU in the state of Thuringia.
