Merz to present Trump with handwritten birthday letter, surprise gift

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will send US President Donald Trump a handwritten birthday letter and present a separate gift during next week’s G7 summit, as diplomatic relations between Berlin and Washington show signs of strain, Der Spiegel writes.

Trump, who turns 80 on June 14, is expected to receive the letter at the White House via a courier from the German government, according to officials in Berlin. 

Merz will then personally deliver a further present when he meets Trump on Monday at the G7 gathering in Évian, France. The nature of the gift has not been disclosed.

The US president is marking his milestone birthday with a high-profile event in Washington, including a controversial cage fight that has drawn criticism in recent months.

The latest gesture continues a pattern of symbolic gift exchanges between the two leaders. On an earlier visit to the United States, Merz presented Trump with a replica of the birth certificate of his grandfather from Kallstadt in Germany’s Palatinate region, alongside a golf club.

During a subsequent trip, he gifted a reproduction of an 18th-century US–Prussian friendship and trade agreement.

Relations between the two leaders, once considered constructive, have deteriorated in recent months following Merz’s criticism of US policy on the Iran conflict. In response, Trump announced plans to withdraw US troops from Germany, escalating tensions between the allies.

By Aghakazim Guliyev