March 3 (UPI) — The cost of war with Iran and increased U.S. tariffs appeared to be at the top of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s agenda Tuesday as he met with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Merz said he’s concerned about the economic impact of U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iran that began Saturday. Retaliatory attacks by Iran has embroiled multiple Middle East nations in the conflict and effectively ended transit through the Strait of Hormuz, CNN reported.
Three days after the initial strikes, the United States had its largest one-day increase in oil prices since 2005 as stocks fell.
“This is true for the oil prices, and this is true for the gas prices, as well,” Merz said of the impact of the conflict.
“That’s the reason why we hope that this war will come to an end as soon as possible.”
Trump said he believes the spike in oil prices is temporary.
“As soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop, I believe, lower than even before,” he said.
Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, unnamed sources close to Merz told Politico that his main focus was to pressure Trump to put tougher sanctions on Russia to force an end to the war in Ukraine. Merz was also focused on easing tariff pressures on Germany in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling against Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
During the Oval Office appearance with reporters, Trump boasted that “tariffs have made our country very rich.” He conceded that he’s hit Germany “very, very hard” with tariffs.
Trump went on to say that he instructed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent “to cut off all trade with Spain,” which has opposed the United States’ attacks on Iran.
“We don’t want anything to do with Spain,” Trump said.
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