When Diplomacy Meets Reality: Germany's Balancing Act with Trump's America

Headlines coming out of the US shook the world in the first week of 2026. The military operation in Venezuela and Trump’s talk of seizing Greenland confronted European leaders with an uncomfortable question: How do democracies navigate a world where power politics trumps international law?

Deutsche Welle (DW) Berlin Briefing host Nina Haase, Michaela Küfner (DW Chief Political Editor) and Thorsten Benner (Global Public Policy Institute) discuss whether Germany’s relative silence is strategic restraint or helplessness in the face of US assertiveness.

This interview was originally published by DW News on January 9, 2026.