section_path: Political positions/Foreign policy/United States
section_name: United States
paragraph_text: United States
  
  Long considered one of the most pro-American politicians in Germany and "exceptionally pro-American for a European leader", he has been the chairman of the Atlantik-Brücke association which promotes German-American friendship and Atlanticism. He counts former US President Ronald Reagan as one of his role models and has travelled to the US over 100 times.
  
  Merz has criticized Donald Trump more harshly than Angela Merkel did and has especially criticized Trump's trade war against Europe. In fall of 2024, he said with regards to relations to the US and Russia, he would try to make himself "a little more independent from the US", as the US would be "in election mode" and "not the regulatory power that we were actually used to". When polls during the 2024 German government crisis predicted that Merz would be the most likely to become the next chancellor, he said that Germany "must go from being a sleeping middle power to becoming a leading middle power again". Germany "never really articulated and enforced its interests well enough The aim is not to benefit only one side, but to make arrangements that are good for both sides. Trump would call it a deal". In January 2025 he said regarding the United States, "We Europeans must be united and those who travel to Washington must not only represent their own interests but the interests of the whole European Union".
  
  In February 2025, Merz said Europe urgently strengthen its defences and potentially even find a replacement for NATO, within months. Merz has criticized the Trump-led United States for alleged election interference after American government officials tried to bolster the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, regarded as extremist by Germany's domestic intelligence agency, comparing it to Russian election interference.
  
  A week after the beginning of his chancellorship, Merz said at the summit of the European Political Community that Europe has to "undertake all efforts to keep the Americans on our side" and "can't substitute or replace what the Americans still do for us."