00:00What do young Americans in Germany think about the Chancellor telling his kids not to go to their country?
00:05I don't love a lot of what the administration has done with respect to the transatlantic relationship over the past
00:11year or so.
00:13I mean, I love my country. I'm patriotic, for sure.
00:16But I don't try to defend things that I don't genuinely believe are in the best interest of the United
00:24States and the transatlantic relationship.
00:27It's definitely a little disheartening. I think, especially with everything happening in the world right now,
00:33there is so much circulating around the U.S. and just kind of global politics as a whole.
00:38Here's what Friedrich Merz said in his speech to young Catholics in Bavaria.
00:42I would not recommend my children to go to the U.S. today.
00:46There are people who are there.
00:53There has suddenly developed a social climate.
00:56Merz's words reflected growing scepticism among some European leaders about the social climate in the U.S.
01:03For some of these young Americans, who just finished a year-long cultural exchange program in Germany,
01:08sponsored by both governments, it left a sour taste in their mouths.
01:12I think there should never be a point where somebody is scared to go travel
01:15or somebody is scared to go and experience other cultures.
01:19And so I do hope that relations continue to improve.
01:23It's sad to know that comments like that will be heard and received and taken to heart.
01:29And, you know, maybe people will be a little bit less interested,
01:32a little bit less likely to engage in the transatlantic sort of exchange and relationship
01:37and come to Germany and come to the U.S.
01:41So I hope that sort of reverses course in the near future.
01:44I don't know if it will, but I'm hopeful.
01:46Some lawmakers seem to echo the visitors' sentiments about the growing rift between Washington and Berlin.
01:52It's not that long, because the times are not between Germany and the United States.
01:57But I would say that at all the differences there are from time to time,
02:01I think there is no country in Germany, with which we are so close to the world
02:08as with the United States of America.
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