Trump shows support for Germany's election winners and somehow manages to congratulate himself

When it comes to Donald Trump, that viral baby blimp wasn’t the only thing that’s inflated, as his ego continues to influence his role as US president to the extent he managed to make the election in Germany about himself and America.

Yes, really.

Despite his close ally Elon Musk – who’s heading up the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) – making several social media posts encouraging Germans to support the far-right Alternative for Deutschland (AfD), the political party came second in the election to the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), according to provisional results.

The conservative bloc between the CDU and Christian Social Union (CSU) came first with 28.6 per cent of the vote, followed by the AfD on 20.8 per cent – it’s best ever result.

As for seats, the CDU/CSU won 208 out of 630, while the AfD won 152 seats.

It means the CDU’s leader Friedrich Merz, who previously ruled out an AfD coalition, is likely to be the next chancellor, but will have to negotiate with the third place Social Democrats (the incumbent party led by Olaf Scholz) and their 120 seats.

And Trump took to social media over the weekend to comment on the results - in his usual all-caps style (we’ll spare you the eye strain).

“Looks like the conservative party in Germany has won the very big and highly anticipated election. Much like the USA, the people of Germany got tired of the no common sense agenda, especially on energy and immigration, that has prevailed for so many years.

“This is a great day for Germany, and for the United States of America under the leadership of a gentleman named Donald J. Trump.

“Congratulations to all – many more victories to follow,” he wrote.

Bit weird, Don.

And people have since pointed out to Trump that he “may have misread” the winning CDU in his message:

Not least because the CDU was previously led by one Angela Merkel:

And, according to one Twitter/X user, “these conservatives are actual conservatives who hate Trump”:

This isn’t the first time that Trump has had a hard time interpreting the results of a country’s election, as at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), he claimed friend Nigel Farage took last year’s general election “by storm”.

In reality, Farage’s Reform UK only secured five MPs in the Commons.

Why not read…

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