I don't know that it's this sort of defiance or anti-America. I mean, I think the Germans and the Europeans would very much like to continue to rely on American support. I think they're just taking a more and more sober look at the reality of who's sitting in the White House and what that will actually mean for them.
Remember, I mean, the Germany is now staring down the barrel of 25% tariffs with the auto industry potentially coming in the beginning of April. That will basically guarantee a third year of contraction. And of course, the Trump theme is unavoidable across every capital in Europe.
And I caught up with one of the senior CDU lawmakers last night at the event headquarters, Jens Spahn, who is a former health minister under Merkel. You'll remember him doing the daily briefings about kind of what the priorities are going to be and what he imagines the relationship with Donald Trump will be. Have a listen.
I'm a free man and Donald Trump will get along very well. Well, all it's our current chancellor was just seen as a lame duck in D. C.
No one really took him seriously. And that's going to change. They will get along well personally.
And that's a good base to make deals these days as it cool to negotiate and to find solutions regarding China, for example, that will do more transatlantic trade perhaps, and most less was China common approach to China that we do invest more in our security? I'm very sure we can find common ground. So some optimism from the CDU there.
You heard from their headquarters. I mean, Trump, for his part, went out on True Social last night, saying basically, you know, calling this sort of a big victory for the conservative movement globally that the conservatives won in Germany, saying that, you know, it didn't go out. So as far as to say sort of congratulations to Frederick Mertz, but did say congratulations to the German people.
But Friedrich Merz, let's not forget, though, this is a party that has tacked to tack to the right on immigration. He is very much a European as he was a former member of European Parliament, and he's acutely aware of the fact that Europe needs to be able to get its own seat at the table without begging.
