The United States is withdrawing 5000 troops from one of its closest allies in Europe, Germany, after the country’s Chancellor offered a withering assessment of the Iran War earlier this week.
Friedrich Merz offended his American counterpart, President Donald Trump, by saying the Iranian regime was “humiliating” the US in negotiations.
He also accused Mr Trump of starting the war without an exit strategy.
“The problem with conflicts like these is always the same. It’s not just about getting in; you also have to get out. We saw that all too painfully in Afghanistan, for 20 years. We saw it in Iraq,” the German leader said.
Mr Trump reacted angrily, saying Mr Merz didn’t know what he was talking about.
The troop withdrawal announcement comes against the backdrop of that row.
“We expect the withdrawal to be completed over the next six to twelve months,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.
In more trivial news, Mr Trump has done a mocking impression of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum while bragging, to a crowd of supporters, about his unilateral renaming of the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America”.
“He’s not too fond of me anymore,” he said of the Mexican leader, before apparently remembering that Ms Sheinbaum is a woman.
“She’s a beautiful woman. A very nice – you know I never like to talk about beauty. Because it’s usually the end of a political career. You say somebody’s a beautiful woman, they say, ‘What a terrible, terrible thing.’ Everybody hates it, except for the woman that you’re talking about. They love it,” Mr Trump continued.
“I won’t say she’s a beautiful woman. But she’s a fine woman. And she is. And she’s got this incredible, beautiful voice, elegant voice. She was a ballet dancer. She’s got this beautiful voice, and she goes, ‘President, Presidentooo. No no, President. Tell me, tell me you’re only kidding, you’re not going to change the name the Gulf of.’ ‘Yes I am, I’m sorry.’ ‘No no no, please.’ Anyway, so they don’t love me too much in Mexico right now.”
He put on a sort of soft, mocking voice for the lines ascribed to Ms Sheinbaum.
For the record, in Spanish the word for president is “presidente”, not “presidentoooooo”.
Read on for the latest updates.
