US has ‘squandered’ its claim to world leadership under Trump, German chancellor Merz suggests (www.independent.co.uk)
from RandAlThor@lemmy.ca to world@lemmy.world on 13 Feb 16:11
https://lemmy.ca/post/60382973

#world

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Lembot_0006@programming.dev on 13 Feb 16:25 next collapse

Trump: squandi-schwandy, but I am now a few beautiful billions richer. Suck covfefe!

newthrowaway20@lemmy.world on 13 Feb 16:45 next collapse

He’s billions richer. But he’s also caused what feels to me like the fastest devaluation of the dollar and rapid loss of purchasing power for Americans.

So we all lose and he makes a small fortune.

It’s only been 1 year too.

School_Lunch@lemmy.world on 13 Feb 17:21 collapse

I had a thought the other day that I’m not nearly financially literate enough to know how true it is, but with all the talk about stocks going up, couldn’t that be an effect of the dollar going down?

twack@lemmy.world on 13 Feb 17:50 collapse

That was my take as well. Anyone with large real estate or other investment portfolios is treading water while those who don’t are sinking without directly realizing why.

My_IFAKs___gone@lemmy.world on 13 Feb 17:37 collapse

It seems like he’s quite bad at keeping a fortune once made. Wouldn’t surprise me to see those billions evaporate from whence they came.

Lembot_0006@programming.dev on 13 Feb 17:48 collapse

Don’t worry about him. He’s quite good at doing whatever he wants and avoiding responsibility for that. He will take another few billions if these would “evaporate”. Just will come to the treasury and say: give me a few billions and a big cup of icecream. And a pony.

Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca on 13 Feb 17:34 next collapse

Merz is just jealous. How many FIFA Peace Prizes and Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal awards does he have, hmmmm?

foodandart@lemmy.zip on 13 Feb 17:44 next collapse

LOL! Well! That’s one way of loking at it!

You may be correct.

D_C@sh.itjust.works on 13 Feb 19:28 next collapse

None, but he does have a few no belt peas prizes.
And we all know how much the murderous war mongering orange child rapist wants one of them!!

b_tr3e@feddit.org on 13 Feb 22:28 collapse

He’s just to cheap to buy any - and not aggressively corrupt enough to get them for free.

BetaBlake@lemmy.world on 13 Feb 18:48 next collapse

Yeah maybe but at least the dow is over 50,000

So suck it

Bustedknuckles@lemmy.world on 13 Feb 19:38 next collapse

Well, yeah. I hope someone better than us takes over

CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org on 13 Feb 21:07 next collapse

If you’re the US circa 2015 and decide to be evil, it would have been entirely doable to lull Europe into a false sense of security, and then occupy some or all of it overnight in a surprise attack. Instead, Trump did the opposite. Europe is the opposite of lulled, and the status of the actual invasion is TACO.

People on here hope Trump gets shot, but for the same reasons they should actually hope he finishes his term.

III@lemmy.world on 13 Feb 21:19 collapse

The idea that the corrupt conservative network that continues to empower Trump will collapse without him is laughable. These people aren’t beholden to that orange idiot. They will lose the person who brought them here but they have long been ensuring they won’t need him once he has gone. And those people aren’t nearly as inept as Trump.

MrSulu@lemmy.ml on 13 Feb 21:42 next collapse

“Squandered” is so imprecise. Perhaps more accurately described as “nuked.”.

b_tr3e@feddit.org on 13 Feb 22:25 collapse

By Merz’ standards “squandered” is hell of a statement. He really dared to critisize his American overlords and employers. Actually that’s nothing I’d have expected even remotely.

Flatworm7591@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 13 Feb 21:44 next collapse

I totally agree Trump has largely destroyed US influence (for the moment), but then again Merz is part of the Israeli genocide club, so he’s hardly a paragon of leadership himself.

The German government has consistently denied that a genocide is taking place in Gaza. In December 2024, after Amnesty International released a report accusing Israel of genocide, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Sebastian Fischer stated that “genocide presupposes a clear intention to eradicate an ethnic group. I still do not recognize any such clear intention.”

In early December 2025, Merz visited Israel and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog. The discussions focused on solidifying German support for Israel, the ongoing Gaza conflict, the peace process, and a major arms deal.

[…]

Another point of contention appears to have eased. While Merz acknowledged that certain Israeli military actions in Gaza put Germany in a “dilemma” and urged Israel to respect international law, he stressed that the decision to suspend arms deliveries was a one-time measure.

Germany suspended the delivery of some arms to Israel in August amid growing concerns over civilian casualties in Gaza. The suspension was lifted in November following the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Defense cooperation remains a cornerstone of German-Israeli ties despite the war in Gaza, which a UN committee has labeled genocide — a charge rejected by Israel.

Notably, Israel has outright rejected Germany’s preferred two-state solution, continues to kill Palestinians at an alarming rate despite the so-called “ceasefire”, and continues turn a blind eye to Zionist settlers murdering Palestinians living in the West Bank. But Merz went ahead and lifted his 4-month long arms embargo so that weapons and profit could keep flowing.

ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net on 13 Feb 22:20 collapse

And Germany squandered the claim to EU leadership by pretending Russia is not a threat as long as it can provide cheap gas.

b_tr3e@feddit.org on 13 Feb 22:22 collapse

Russia is still not a threat.