{"id":209334,"date":"2026-05-01T09:51:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T09:51:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-news-at-a-glance-president-doubles-down-on-rift-with-germanys-chancellor-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T09:51:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T09:51:49","slug":"trump-news-at-a-glance-president-doubles-down-on-rift-with-germanys-chancellor-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-news-at-a-glance-president-doubles-down-on-rift-with-germanys-chancellor-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump news at a glance: president doubles down on rift with Germany\u2019s chancellor – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump also said he may consider pulling US troops from bases in Italy and Spain, after being prompted by rightwing reporter \u2013 key US politics stories from Thursday 30 April
Donald Trump has again lashed out at Germany\u2019s chancellor, Friedrich Merz<\/a>, saying he should focus on \u201cfixing his broken country\u201d and trying to end the Russia-Ukraine war \u2013 and spend less time \u201cinterfering\u201d in Iran.
Trump\u2019s latest outburst came a day after he suggested the US military<\/a> presence in Germany was being reviewed, with a \u201cpossible reduction\u201d of troops under consideration. Then on Thursday, the president was baited into saying he may consider withdrawing troops from other US bases in Europe.
During an Oval Office event for correspondents from partisan, rightwing outlets, Trump was asked if he would consider withdrawing troops from bases in Spain and Italy, over their unwillingness to get involved in his ruinous war on Iran.
\u201cYeah, probably,\u201d the president replied. \u201cWhy shouldn\u2019t I? Italy has not been of any help to us and Spain has been horrible, absolutely horrible.\u201d
Trump claimed that when the US \u201cneeded them, they were not there,\u201d then added that the US actually \u201cdidn\u2019t need any help with Iran\u201d.
German officials were keen to dampen the row. Throughout Thursday they were at pains to point out the threats from the US to withdraw troops from German soil were far from new \u2013 Trump had made them during his first term in office \u2013 and they were ready for them.
Trump\u2019s comments appear to have been prompted by Merz\u2019s unusually blunt comments earlier this week, when the chancellor said the US was being \u201chumiliated\u201d by Iran <\/a>and criticised Washington for having no exit strategy from the war.
On Thursday, Merz sought to strike a more conciliatory tone at a visit to a German military base in M\u00fcnster, emphasising the importance of ties with Nato and the US, and criticising Iran for refusing to take part in peace negotiations.
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
Pete Hegseth has failed to give Donald Trump<\/a> an accurate picture of the war on Iran while resorting to \u201cdangerously exaggerated\u201d statements to create an inaccurate picture of a US military triumph, a senior Democrat told a Capitol Hill hearing.
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
Donald Trump swiftly signed bipartisan legislation on Thursday after the US House of Representatives<\/a> voted to fund much of the Department of Homeland Security<\/a> \u2013 excluding immigration enforcement operations \u2013 and end the longest government agency shutdown in history.
The agreement aims to draw a line under a 75-day impasse that had threatened airport chaos and exposed fresh strains<\/a> within the Republican party.
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
Southern states are scrambling to redraw congressional districts in response to the supreme court\u2019s Wednesday ruling that severely weakened the landmark Voting Rights Act<\/a>, which protected against racial discrimination in drawing voting maps.
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
Brendan Carr, the Trump-picked chairman<\/a> of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), denied speculation that the agency is forcing ABC to apply early to renew licenses<\/a> for its eight owned and operated local television stations as punishment for an ill-timed joke made last Thursday by the late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel.
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
Senate Democrats accused the Trump administration<\/a> of abandoning the Environmental Protection Agency<\/a>\u2019s mission to protect human health and the environment at a congressional hearing Wednesday, slamming agency leadership over a proposal to cut its budget in half.
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
A federal appeals court has announced it will not grant a rare meeting of its active judges to hear an appeal of the $83m civil case verdict<\/a> against Donald Trump for defaming magazine advice columnist E Jean Carroll<\/a> over a forced sexual encounter three decades ago.
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
The Trump administration <\/a>is making good on its promise to reschedule cannabis<\/a>, but only partially \u2013 raising plenty of questions for those in the cannabis industry.
Todd Blanche<\/a>, the acting attorney general, signed an order<\/a> last week that removes products sold under state medical cannabis licenses and FDA approved cannabis products from schedule I \u2013 defined as substances with no accepted medical use, to schedule III \u2013 which includes legal but regulated substances including certain doses of Tylenol with codeine and ketamine.
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
In a gesture of diplomatic friendliness after King Charles\u2019s visit to the White House, Donald Trump<\/a> said the US would be removing all tariffs on whisky imports.
\u201cIn Honor of the King and Queen of the United Kingdom, who have just left the White House, soon headed back to their wonderful Country, I will be removing the Tariffs and Restrictions on Whiskey having to do with Scotland\u2019s ability to work with the Commonwealth of Kentucky on Whiskey and Bourbon,\u201d Trump said in a post on social media.
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
The voting rights advocates who fought for majority-minority districts across the US south are organizing their next steps after the supreme court effectively gutted the Voting Rights Act<\/a><\/strong> on Wednesday and eviscerated much of the work of the civil rights era.
Janet Mills, the Maine governor, on Thursday dropped her bid for the US Senate just weeks before the Democratic primary<\/a><\/strong> in a race that reflected an internal party debate over how to win one of this year\u2019s most competitive Senate seats.
US gross domestic product (GDP) accelerated 2% in the first three months of 2026<\/a><\/strong>, though consumer spending is slowing as the war with Iran continues to impact energy prices.
The US justice department has rolled back several significant restrictions on guns, including reinstating the so-called \u201cgun show loophole\u201d<\/a><\/strong>, which allowed people at such events to buy firearms without a background check.
Camp Mystic, the Christian summer camp in Texas<\/a> where 27 campers and counselors died in a catastrophic flood last year, has halted plans to reopen this summer, after months of intensifying pressure and outrage by state leaders and victims\u2019 families.<\/a><\/strong>
Catching up? Here\u2019s what happened Wednesday 29 April<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump also said he may consider pulling US troops from bases in Italy and Spain, after being prompted by rightwing reporter \u2013 key US politics stories from Thursday 30 AprilDonald Trump has again lashed out at Germany\u2019s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, saying he should focus on \u201cfixing his broken country\u201d and trying to end the Russia-Ukraine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":209335,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-209334","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}