US President Donald Trump and his administration are threatening to turn back the clock on equality for the LGBTQ+ community, Germany's president warned on Friday.

"In the United States, a self-anointed elite wants to turn back the clock," said Frank-Walter Steinmeier, speaking at an event marking the 35th anniversary of the foundation of the German LSVD+ rights organization at Schloss Bellevue in Berlin.

"We risk falling back into old social battles which we thought we'd left behind," he continued, warning of the "danger of a tipping point."

In Germany, the president is the official head of state but serves in a largely ceremonial role compared to the chancellor, who serves as the head of government.

The president is nevertheless expected to lend a moral direction to socio-political debates. Steinmeier criticized US institutions, businesses and universities that he said thus far have failed to stand up to Trump on issues such as "the acknowledgement of two genders only, the planned exclusion of trans people from the army [and] the scrapping of diversity programs."

Germany: 'LGBTQ+ rights assaulted and violated daily'

Turning his attention back to Germany, Steinmeier lamented that LGBTQ+ people still have their "dignity assaulted and violated on a daily basis."

He described an increase in homophobic and transphobic hate crime, as well as threats made against Christopher Street Day parades by neo-Nazis.

"We cannot accept these attacks with a shrug of the shoulders," he warned, calling on Germans to actively defend and practice the values of "tolerance and respect" anchored in the country's constitution.

Russian, US foreign policy moves mark 'epochal shift'

Earlier in the day, Steinmeier had attended the opening of the second Westphalian Peace Conference in the western German city of Münster, at which he called on Europe to take on more responsibility for its own security and defense.

"We Europeans must now focus on what is important to us and take care of our own protection," he said. "We know that we all have to do more for [our] deterrence and defense."

Referring to a "double epochal shift" in global politics brought about by both Moscow and Washington, he said Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 had "shattered" Europe's security, but that it was just as "disturbing" how the Trump administration is "attacking the principles and rules of our transatlantic partnership and our western community of values which had previously been considered secure and binding."

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a major German broadsheet, called Steinmeier's speech "an unmistakable denunciation of the modern America."

Steinmeier calls for stronger German army

Steinmeier warned against "declaring NATO dead prematurely" and replacing it with vague ideas of a European army, but he did say that Europe needs a strong German army with modern equipment and more soldiers. 

To achieve this, Steinmeier said he welcomed the current debate over the reintroduction of a form of military or civil service in Germany as "a period of service to our country."

At the same time, he called on Germany and Europe "not to constantly underestimate themselves" and to develop a more active foreign policy.

"Hiding away and keeping quiet are clearly not an answer to the crises of our times," Steinmeier said.

Edited by Sean Sinico