Today is the 81st anniversary of D-Day. Last year, they did huge commemoration events in Normandy and almost all of the world leaders came to pay homage to those who fought and lost their lives on the Day of Days. Ahead of the anniversary, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz visited the White House. He participated in one of those asinine photocalls in the Oval Office with Donald Trump on Thursday. Keep in mind, throughout much of Thursday, Trump was online, bitching about Elon Musk and threatening Musk with various punishments (the cancellation of government contracts, etc). In between the Musk-beef dramatics, Trump told Chancellor Merz that D-Day was “not a great day.”
President Donald Trump made a verbal stumble when meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House, calling D-Day “not a great day” on live TV. The chancellor quickly corrected him.
“May I remind you that we are having June 6th tomorrow,” Merz, 69, initially said as they discussed the war in Ukraine, which began when Russia invaded the smaller country in February 2022, with no provocation. The chancellor drew similarities between Russia’s invasion and World War II, in which the United States played a major role in ending the war.
“This is D-Day anniversary when the Americans once ended the war in Europe,” he continued, referencing the invasion of Normandy in 1944, which helped usher in the Allies’ victory months later. “And I think this is in your hands, specifically, in ours.”
“That was not a pleasant day for you?” interrupted Trump, 78, before turning to the cameras and adding, “This was not a great day.”
“Well, in the long run, Mr. President, this was the liberation of my country from Nazi dictatorship,” Merz responded of D-Day.
“That’s true,” responded Trump.
Just know I absolutely loathe to defend Trump about anything, but I had a brief moment of understanding him through his haze of senility. He was actually sort of attempting to show sympathy, like “oh, should I say this, so many German lives were lost on D-Day?” Chancellor Merz’s response was good though, and extremely poignant: “this was the liberation of my country from Nazi dictatorship.” I wish Americans could be liberated from our Nazi dictatorship.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
