As ties fray, Berlin and Washington are trading barbs over their decline, using each other’s crises to dodge their own mounting failures
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told an audience of local Catholics in the southwestern city of Wuerzburg that he no longer advises young people to travel to the United States for work and study, citing the rapidly changing “social climate” in the country.
Merz, who has served as Chancellor of Germany since May 2025, said“I would not recommend to my children today that they go to the US to get an education and to work” – a comment that attracted robust applause from the audience.
The chancellor’s concern focused primarily on the job market in the US, saying “the social climate that has suddenly developed” in the US had become a source of concern and argued that “even the best educated in America have great difficulty in finding a job.”
“I am a great admirer of America,” Merz added, eliciting laughter from the audience, “but right now my admiration is not increasing.”
New data shows that the German chancellor is not wrong in his prognosis of the US labor market. For the first time since Gallup began measuring the life evaluation of the American workforce, more US workers are struggling in their lives (49%) than thriving (46%).
“This contrasts with 2022 and 2023, when the reverse was true, with the share of US employees considered ‘thriving’ staying in the low-to-mid 50s – a mark of relative resilience after pandemic disruptions. After staying steady between 57% and 60% from 2009 to 2019, the thriving rate among workers fell to 55% in 2020 before rebounding in 2021 then steadily decreasing after that,” Gallup reported.
So yes, Merz is certainly right; the United States has seen better days on the labor front. Speaking on the topic of crime, which Merz just briefly touched upon, the United States reported the worst crime rates of any developed country in the West.
Americans are 26 times more likely to be shot compared to their counterparts in high-income countries, according to the Brady Center. Every day, 327 people are shot in the United States, of that number 117 will die from their injuries. Firearm suicides in the US account for 35% of all the world’s suicides, Brady found, despite the US making up 4% of the world’s population. It’s a well-known fact that America has more guns than people – there were 67 million more firearms than people in 2023.
The situation with regards to sexual violence is no less disturbing. Someone in the US is sexually assaulted every 68 seconds, while nearly 1 in 2 adult women and 1 in 4 adult men in the US have experienced some form of unwanted sexual contact in their lifetime. However, it is estimated that only about 25% to 40% of all rapes and sexual assaults are reported to the police.
The situation in Germany with regards to crime, while not as bad as the United States, is steadily worsening with each passing year and should give leaders like Merz tremendous pause. Germany has experienced a significant increase in reported crime since 2023, with police statistics recording a rise in total offenses to nearly six million. Violent crime reached a 15-year high in 2025, while sexual offenses and politically motivated crimes saw notable spikes.
Violent crimes, such as grievous bodily harm, robberies, and knife attacks, have grown significantly. Major cities like Berlin and Frankfurt have seen unprecedented spikes in organized criminal violence and gun-related incidents. Meanwhile, Germany has smashed all of its previous records for shoplifting in 2024. An annual survey of 98 retailers estimates a 3% increase on the year before – amounting to some €4.95 billion ($5.84 billion) in total losses.
Much of Germany’s problems are the result of mass migration; millions of illegal immigrants have poured into the country over the last two decades. Now Germany is experiencing a massive demographic shift. Since 2005, the number of residents with a migration background has grown by 67%, jumping from 13 million to 21.8 million.
In December, the White House warned that Europe faces “civilizational erasure” within 20 years and questioned whether certain nations like Germany and France can remain reliable allies, in a new strategy document that puts a particular focus on the continent. The 33-page National Security Strategy sees the US leader outline his vision for the world where the US remains “the greatest and most successful nation in human history.”
Merz rose to power in 2025 as a staunch Transatlanticist but has since leveled criticism of the United States, Germany’s most powerful ally. Trump, in response, said the German chancellor should focus on fixing his own “broken country” as the United States is preparing to remove 5,000 troops from Germany as the two countries go through the worst bilateral breakup since World War II. It’s going to require a lot of work for the two countries to look past their separate problems and see each other in a new light.
