French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Washington in an attempt to persuade Donald Trump to change his mind on, among other things, imposing tariffs on European goods. Even though a decision was postponed for four weeks, “the German government is pessimistic about avoiding a trade war between the United States and Europe. The German-American relationship is in a profound crisis, hitting ‘ground zero,’ with disputes over the Iraq War in 2003 seeming trivial in comparison” (Handelsblatt, April 27). While the world is being admonished to “take Trump seriously” (Bild, April 27), Europe is anxious to “pull together unto a single unit” under French-German leadership (Der Spiegel, April 18), with a strong nucleus of EU countries (Politico, April 10) and with the perception that it must not allow itself to be blackmailed by Trump, as it constitutes “an economic power equal to the US” (Deutsche Welle, May 2).