The infamous meeting of Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February upended the diplomatic world. Leaders and their advisors across the globe are considering different options before visiting the Oval Office in Washington.
On 28 February, Ukraine’s president had a heated argument with his US counterpart and Vice President JD Vance at the White House, ending with leaders raising their voices while confronting each other in an unprecedented diplomatic row in front of television cameras.
The meeting sent shockwaves across the world as diplomats attempted to work on different strategies for dealing with Trump, when it comes to bilateral meetings at the Oval Office.
Now that it’s German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s turn for a moment in the Oval Office, here are some options for him to consider when dealing with the US president.
Prepare for a live TV show where anything goes
Primary advice for leaders is to bear in mind they will not have much private time with Trump: most of the discussions will be live on air, in front of the cameras.
“The first thing is to be prepared for everything. I think one of the biggest challenges that we saw with President Zelenskyy was that no one in their wildest imagination could have imagined that Donald Trump would want to discuss very controversial national security issues with a rolling camera,” Bruegel think tank analyst Jacob Kirkegaard told Euronews.
During their confrontation, Vance accused Zelenskyy of being disrespectful, while Trump reminded him he had no cards in the game. The meeting ended without signing the long-awaited mineral deal between the two sides.
Another incident where the talks went south was Trump’s meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in May, which saw the US president rolling suspect news footage while alleging white genocide in the country.
Trump said people are fleeing the country because of violence against white farmers, played television videos and handed over a pile of newspaper articles to his counterpart.
The claim was rejected by President Ramaphosa, who said the majority of victims of violence in the country are black, adding that there is no genocide in South Africa.
President Ramaphosa did manage to hit back at Trump afterwards, when he lamented not having a plane to give Trump, a reference to Qatar’s offer of a $400 million (€350m) aeroplane to the US president.
In May the US officially accepted a Boeing 747 airliner from Qatar to serve the famous Air Force One fleet of the president.
The presence of cameras inevitably shifts the nature of any diplomacy on display.
“One of the characteristics of Donald Trump is that he’s always unfiltered. He says whatever he thinks at the moment, for good or bad, right, and that obviously is not the way diplomacy between countries is normally conducted,” said Kirkegaard.
Mostly, such conversations are kept well away from media scrutiny, according to Kirkegaard, who added: “Perhaps he feels that having a camera throws other leaders off balance.”
Pleasing the inner child of Trump
The next advice for those braving the Oval Office is to shower Trump with gifts and gestures, such as that Qatari plane.
The gift sparked debates and legal concerns in the US, but the Trump administration never backed down from accepting the gift.
Brett Bruen, the president of the Global Situation Room and a former US diplomat, told Euronews that European leaders should keep in mind that Trump is out for a prize, something that he can hold up.
“It can be a flashy object and say, look, I got the biggest, the best deal, the substance doesn’t really matter. Quite frankly, the strategy doesn’t seem to matter very much,” Bruen said.
“So this is ultimately like, how do you deal with a toddler? A toddler is constantly going to come back and say I want more, I want this new toy.”
“Well, if I were advising European leaders, I would say have a bunch of small, shiny objects lined up and every time Trump comes and says, well, I want something else, you dole out that next shiny object to him,” he explained.
Bruegel’s Kirkegaard agreed that Trump should sometimes be treated like a child.
“I think you have to certainly deal with him, expecting a possible tantrum. He can be very unpredictable in a way that a child is. You clearly know he is a narcissist. So you have, if you want, to play to his ego,” said Kirkegaard.
Witness British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the Oval Office handing the president a cartoon-sized invitation for a state visit to the UK from King Charles III.
“This is really special, this is unprecedented, this has never happened before,” Starmer told Trump in an attempt to charm him. A strategy that can pay off, according to the expert.
“Obviously, if you are the British prime minister, you know that Donald Trump likes the royal family, has a fondness of the UK in general, of course, you would want to exploit that,” Kirkegaard said.
“In the same way that, for instance, a former Japanese prime minister who was a pretty keen golfer exploited that with Donald Trump as well, who’s well known for his fondness for golf.”
Many leaders simply opt not to see Trump to avoid trouble
After the disastrous Trump-Zelenskyy meeting back in February, many foreign dignitaries decided not see Trump.
Asian leaders are particularly keen to avoid any nasty surprises that might spring from an encounter with the US president. Trump’s temper might cause Beijing to think twice about accepting a bilateral meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping anytime soon.
“In the case of Asia, political cultures or systems have a low tolerance for the unexpected, which requires a certain formality around their political leaders. One example is China,” Kirkegaard said.
“There’s no doubt that the possibility of a Xi Jinping-Trump meeting is close to zero, or probably is zero under these circumstances. Because there’s simply no chance that the Chinese government will risk putting Xi Jinping in this position where something not scripted could happen. I think that applies similarly to many other Asian countries,” he explained.
An exception to this rule is Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who had a fruitful meeting with Trump back in February, where they talked about a possible trade deal and more LNG transfer from the US to Japan.
But the expert recalls that even those positive meetings will not bring results, questioning the necessity of those highly risky visits.
“The reality is that there has been no breakthrough on trade deals with Japan. So the question is, why would anybody want to come? Whatever Trump agrees to, maybe or maybe not, in a bilateral meeting in the White House, might be forgotten the next day,” according to Kirkegaard.
“Again, go back to what happened to Keir Starmer. He thought he had a trade agreement with Donald Trump that exempted British steel exports to the US. Well, clearly he didn’t have that. So, you know, it’s very much for, especially countries like that in Asia, it is very high risk and essentially maybe no reward,” Kirkegaard said.
Standing up to bullying could pay off for Merz
Visits by French President Emmanuel Macron and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte went relatively well. In the case of Rutte, this is because the US is the main force in the alliance.
“De facto Rutte works for Donald Trump, let’s not forget that. He came, and he’s basically done everything that the president would want him to do. They’re working towards a 5% target for NATO defence expenditure for example,” Kirkegaard said.
For Merz’s visit on Thursday, the stakes are high. The Trump administration is highly critical of Germany.
Vance and Elon Musk supported the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the German election campaign and accused Germany of suppressing free speech. And Trump is also critical of the record German trade surplus.
So far it’s not clear which attitude Merz will take towards Trump. But standing up to him might be popular in Germany.
“If you’re the German chancellor, you go to the Oval Office and you hold your ground. You take a public confrontation with Donald Trump over issues, it might play well for Friedrich Merz domestically, to stand up to Donald Trump’s bullying or perhaps refuting his fake news,” said Kirkegaard.
He said that when Macron interrupted Trump back in February, correcting the US president over European funding to Ukraine, it did him no political damage.
And in the case of Zelenskyy, he even benefited domestically for not backing down. This could also be working on Merz’s mind.
