Merz says parts of US security strategy unacceptable for Europe

Kamil Kowalcze, Bloomberg News on Dec 9, 2025

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Chancellor Friedrich Merz said elements of a new U.S. national security strategy unveiled last week are unacceptable to Europe and advised President Donald Trump to avoid going it alone.

The conservative German leader said he wasn’t surprised by the strategy release given that Vice President JD Vance had made similar points advocating an “America First” approach in a speech lambasting Europe in Munich in February.

Parts of the new strategy are “comprehensible, some of it is understandable, and some of it is unacceptable to us from a European perspective,” Merz told reporters Tuesday during a visit to Mainz, which is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the U.S. air base at Ramstein.

“It confirms my assessment that we in Europe, and therefore also in Germany, must become much more independent from the U.S. in terms of security policy,” he added, saying that “America First” is legitimate, but “America Alone” cannot be in the U.S. interest.

“You also need partners in the world, and one of those partners can be Europe,” Merz said. “If you can’t deal with Europe, then at least make Germany your partner. That’s what I’m trying to do.”

The U.S. strategy release published Dec. 5 and personally signed by Trump warned that Europe faces “civilizational erasure” due to decades of economic decline as well as political and cultural failures.

It was seen as further confirmation that the U.S. has turned its focus closer to its own backyard and sees a misalignment between Trump’s “America First” doctrine and European nations like Germany that help comprise the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Merz said he hoped that the Trump administration would “recognize that we are partners and that we have a common goal, namely the preservation of freedom, security, and peace on our continent.”

“I hope that the Americans will follow us on this path, that they will also consider it right and necessary in their own interests,” he said

Merz suggested that Vance’s Munich speech had helped nudge Germany toward a massive expansion of its military.

“That speech did trigger something in me, and you can see the results of that today in our defense spending,” he said.

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—With assistance from Jenni Thier.