analysis
Chancellor Scholz’s quick visit lasted less than 24 hours – but the schedule was packed and marked by appeals for more aid to Ukraine and discussions about Germany as a business location. How successful was the short trip?
In the early evening, as it gradually gets dark over the White House, the Chancellor stands opposite in Lafayette Square and tries to use superlatives. German-American relations? “So close, so amicable, more intense than we have been in decades,” he says.
Decades? Merkel with Obama? Apparently there is no comparison to the dream tandem of Biden and Scholz. This is how the Chancellor sees things. And it sounds like the otherwise cool Hanseatic Scholz almost seems a little in love with this US President. And that this should definitely continue after the presidential elections in November.
An American president doesn’t have that much time for everyone
The two spoke in the Oval Office for almost two hours. In private. Then with their delegations. Ukraine. Middle East. Business. An American president doesn’t have that much time for everyone.
But that was what Scholz was primarily interested in. As much time with the venerable president as possible. There is a lot to settle and discuss before the election campaign begins in the USA in April at the latest and the country and politics turn their attention predominantly inwards, and world crises and foreign policy construction sites have to cope without the full attention of the USA.
Scholz is promoting “indispensable” payments
In any case, Biden explicitly asked Scholz to stop by. The Chancellor’s working visit had begun 20 hours earlier with dinner at the German embassy residence. Congress had just blocked 60 billion for Ukraine because Donald Trump’s Republicans wanted it that way.
Scholz knows what is at stake for Ukraine without US money. Everything. If Washington stops the payments, the war will be lost. The Chancellor will later publicly say that the money is “indispensable.”
This is also why the Chancellor wanted to know from eight high-ranking senators at the table where the journey would take us. Some of the Republicans who had just voted against the 60 billion seemed to have forgotten why at dinner with Scholz. Later, Scholz would still say that he was confident that US financing of Ukraine would come through in the end. It almost sounds imploring.
There were also light moments
And by the way, there are also the short, carefree moments for this Chancellor, who actually has little to laugh about in times of war in Ukraine, budget holes and traffic light crashes. There is this Olaf Scholz standing in the residence of the German Embassy in Washington and taking a selfie. Next to him is Democratic Senator Chris Coons from Delaware. “Great to see my doppelganger again,” Scholz later broadcasts. “Who’s who,” writes Chris Coons, who actually looks exactly like the German Chancellor’s twin brother. The double Olaf. Humor in times of crisis.
So while Scholz is having dinner at the German embassy with Democratic and Republican senators and promoting American aid to Ukraine, the Americans are simultaneously watching on television either a bizarre interview with Russian President Putin by the ultra-right ex-Fox journalist Tucker Carlson or one US President Biden foolishly confusing Egyptian President Al-Sisi with the Mexican President in an impromptu press conference about his mental capacity.
Biden finds clear words
There was a lot going on this evening in the American capital. So much so that the German Chancellor will only be a side note in the city this evening. 19 hours later, Olaf Scholz sits opposite 81-year-old Joe Biden in the Oval Office. The fire in the fireplace crackles so loudly that the American president can hardly be heard greeting Scholz. Friends? Biden greets Scholz almost fatherly. Praise Germany. Praise the Chancellor – and wear a small pin with a Ukrainian-American flag on his lapel.
It’s certainly not a coincidence. Biden is using the short public appearance to bluntly say what the Chancellor had only politely packaged publicly as a request: that the US Congress now has the damned duty to give Ukraine the aid money. The delay is outrageous, Biden says quietly. This is an act of criminal ignorance. Scholz sits there, unmoved. If he’s impressed, he doesn’t show it.
Only when the American journalists started shouting questions at the US President after the end of the public part in the Oval Office did the Chancellor grin. He is not used to such shouting during appearances at home in the Chancellery. It is Scholz’s third visit to the Oval Office. But maybe also a kind of farewell. Biden wanted to see Scholz.
Preparations for the horror scenario
Some things can probably only be discussed in private. Possibly also an honest analysis of what could happen if Joe Biden loses the election in November to the man about whom Scholz doesn’t say a word: former President Donald Trump. Scholz himself has at least publicly warned against writing off the venerable Joe Biden. He still thinks Biden is fit. Especially in your head. A man with experience, also as a campaigner.
But in the Chancellery they are of course also preparing for the horror scenario. What will happen to the world if that erratic narcissist Trump becomes president again? Trump and Scholz? Even with Merkel, everyone had the feeling that the contrasts couldn’t be greater. But to the brainiac Scholz, who hates public posturing, Donald Trump may be even more foreign to him than Trump was to the Chancellor.
Trump is already providing a foretaste
Scholz just experienced a foretaste of what could come in Washington. The Republicans in Congress are blocking the $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, partly because Donald Trump, who is not even officially the Republican presidential candidate, wanted it that way. Apparently a few calls and threats from the former president are enough, and long-agreed resolutions in Congress no longer apply, even to seasoned Republican senators.
So what remains at the end of this lightning visit to Washington? At least a chancellor who flew back to Germany a little more relaxed because he knows that the US President is at his side on all important issues. And on top of that, he spent a few very harmonious hours in the White House and on a short trip to a Washington bookstore. At the cabinet table in the Chancellery, Olaf Scholz and his traffic light ministers from the FDP and Greens will certainly have less fun next week.