German Chancellor Merz expected to meet with president at White House on Thursday

President Donald Trump’s 20th week in the Oval Office is expected to include a White House meeting with Germany’s chancellor, a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping and lawmakers’ ongoing efforts to pass the “big, beautiful bill” to fund the president’s agenda.

Monday marks Trump’s 134th day in the White House, a period in which he has issued 150 executive orders affecting domestic policies, unveiled sweeping plans to rectify the nation’s trade deficit with foreign nations and held ongoing negotiations to end international wars. 

The week is slated to include a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House as war continues to rage between Ukraine and Russia and trade negotiations with the U.S. hang over Germany. 

Merz’s office confirmed on Saturday that the chancellor will travel to Washington on Wednesday evening ahead of meeting Trump on Thursday, Politico reported. 

The two are slated to discuss the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine and trade policies. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Merz in Germany last week as the two European leaders ironed out an agreement for Germany to bolster its backing of Ukraine. 

The meeting on Thursday will be followed by a lunch and press conference, according to Bloomberg.

Merz and Trump have previously spoken by phone but have not met face-to-face since Merz was elected Germany’s leader in May.

Merz clashed with Trump officials last month when Germany designated its right-wing Alternative for Germany political party a “proven right-wing extremist organization.” 

“Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That’s not democracy–it’s tyranny in disguise,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted to X of the designation. “What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD–which took second in the recent election – but rather the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes.”

“Banning the centrist AfD, Germany’s most popular party, would be an extreme attack on democracy,” former Department of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk posted to X, the social media platform that he owns.

Merz responded that American leaders should not weigh in on German elections and politics. 

“We have largely stayed out of the American election campaign in recent years, and that includes me personally,” Merz said, according to Politico.

Trump to call with Xi Jinping

Trump is expected to hold a phone call with China’s Xi Jinping this week to discuss tariffs, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett revealed on Sunday. 

“President Trump, we expect, is going to have a wonderful conversation about the trade negotiations this week with President Xi. That’s our expectation,” Hassett said Sunday during an interview on ABC News’ “This Week.”

A day for the phone call has not yet been locked down, according to Hassett.

“You never know in international relations, but my expectation is that both sides have expressed a willingness to talk,” Hassett said. “And I’d like to also add that people are talking every day, so [U.S. Trade Representative] Jamieson Greer, his team and President Xi’s team in China, they’re talking every day trying to move the ball forward on this matter.”

The Trump administration leveled tariffs as high as 145% on Chinese goods following the president’s reciprocal tariff plans in April, when China retaliated against the U.S. with tariffs of their own. 

China and the U.S. reached a preliminary trade agreement last month, which Trump said China violated in a Truth Social post on Friday. 

“I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation, and I didn’t want to see that happen. Because of this deal, everything quickly stabilized and China got back to business as usual. Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!! The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!” he wrote.