D-Day 'Was Not a Pleasant Day for You'

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Oval Office meeting with President Trump may have been overshadowed by Trump's friction with Elon Musk, but it nonetheless made headlines. Merz encouraged Trump to play a strong role in getting Russia to end its war against Ukraine, and he reminded the president that Friday is the anniversary of D-Day, when the US helped end another European war, reports the Washington Post. At which point, Trump interjected with a joke, per Newsweek:

• Trump: "That was not a pleasant day for you."
• Merz: "No, that was not a pleasant—well—"
• Trump: "This was not a great day (for Germany)."
• Merz: "In the long run, Mr. President, this was the liberation of my country from Nazi dictatorship."
• Trump: "That's true."

• Trump, for his part, did not sound enthusiastic about moving aggressively to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict. His analogy: "Sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy," he said, per the New York Times. "They hate each other, and they're fighting in a park, and you try and pull them apart. They don't want to be pulled. Sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart."
• In a happier vein, Merz presented Trump with the birth certificate of his grandfather, reports the BBC. Friedrich Trump was born in the Bavarian town of Kallstadt before emigrating to the US and starting the family real estate business.