German Chancellor Friedrich Merz delivered the opening speech of the Munich Security Conference on Friday. He took the opportunity to reinterpret the lessons from the past. His speech had one clear theme:

• Germany has learned the lessons from World War ii, while the United States under Donald Trump is threatening to become a new Nazi regime.

Merz said:

This conference has a gloomy motto: Under Destruction. This motto probably means that the international order, which was based on rights and rules, is in the process of being destroyed. I fear we need to say it even more clearly: This order, as imperfect as it was even in its best days, no longer exists. …

We Germans know a world in which might makes right would be a dark place. Our country has gone down this path in the 20th century until the bitter and dreadful end.

As Trumpet managing editor Joel Hilliker wrote in today’s Morning Brief, “The implication is clear: Trump believes might makes right, and is therefore a Nazi.” The fact that millions of Americans support his policies makes them Nazi sympathizers.

The accusation is absurd, but that’s the motivation behind Merz’s speech and the course on which he leads Germany.

According to Merz, Germany needs to be the guarantor of the global order, form new alliances with the autocrats of this world, build a European military power that is ready to defend itself without the U.S., and attain nuclear weapons.

The prospect of a militarized, nuclear-armed Europe is frightening enough. It is even more frightening to see this Europe emerge with a self-righteous zeal to save the world. This combination provides the ingredients and impetus for a new “holy” war.

A New German Power

While Merz acknowledged that Germany’s power needed to be limited after World War ii, he argued that insufficient power endangers Europe’s freedom. In Merz’s view, Germany needs to become a military power to defend the world’s freedom. This kind of rhetoric inspires war thinking for a “righteous” cause. It’s also a clear break from Germany’s postwar restraint. Merz explained:

For important reasons, we in Germany do not take state power lightly. Since 1945, it has been firmly anchored in our thinking that we must keep this power in check. Let me add that it is not only too much state power that destroys the foundations of our freedom; too little state power leads to the same result in a different way.

He went on to quote Polish politician Radek Sikorski, who famously said: “I fear German power less than German inaction.” Merz added: “This, too, is part of our responsibility, which stems from our constitution, our history and our geography. We accept this responsibility.”

By implication, Germany has a historic responsibility based on history to fight against Nazism, not just at home but also abroad. With twisted reasoning, Germany is using its past not to humble itself but to look down on the U.S.

How can Germany accept its new “responsibility” of defending what remains of the free world? Merz explained:

Firstly, we are strengthening ourselves militarily, politically, economically and technologically.

This reduces our dependencies and our vulnerability. Our top priority is to strengthen Europe within nato. We are investing heavily in credible deterrence. … Germany alone will invest several hundred billion euros over the next few years.

He went on to list investments in “air defense, deep precision strikes and satellite technology.” He added, “We are breathing new life into our defense industry. New plants are opening, new jobs are being created, and new technologies are being added.” He highlighted Munich’s “booming cluster of highly innovative defense tech companies” that are “developing disruptive technologies, some of them in close cooperation with Ukraine.”

In summary, Germany is investing hundreds of billions into the war of the future. Our world needs to be prepared for German military surprises.

In many ways, the European Union is on track to become a military superpower. “The European Union is mobilizing up to €800 billion [us$948 billion] investing in the capabilities we need—from air and missile defense to drone and military mobility,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday. “We are delivering.”

Merz strongly implied that this new European military superpower is obligated to defend Greenland in the event of a power grab by the U.S. After stating that the first German Eurofighters are being deployed in the High North, he said:

As a reminder, and for those who may not be aware, Article 42 of the Treaty on European Union commits us to assist each other in the event of an armed attack in Europe. We must now spell out how we intend to organize this at the European level—not as a substitute for nato but as a self-sustaining, strong pillar within the alliance.

Article 42 has recently been hotly debated, particularly after Germany and other European countries sent a handful of military personnel to Greenland on January 16 and 17.

A European Commission spokesperson told Euronews at the time: “Greenland is part of the territory of the kingdom of Denmark and therefore in principle covered by the mutual solidarity clause in Article 42.7 teu.”

Merz didn’t explicitly say that Germany and the EU are ready to battle the U.S. over Greenland, but he did say that Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen “knows that she can rely on European solidarity without any reservations.”

Without reservations in the context of Article 42 means that the EU would be ready to fight the U.S. militarily.

But for Europe to pose a credible military counterweight to the U.S., it cannot rely on American nuclear weapons for deterrence. That’s why Merz is discussing an independent European nuclear umbrella. He confirmed: “I have begun initial talks with French President Emmanuel Macron on European nuclear deterrence.”

Merz made it clear that Germany is seeking to end military dependence on America. He said:

No one forced us into the excessive dependence on the United States that we have found ourselves in recently. This immaturity was our own fault. But we are now leaving this state of affairs behind us, and sooner rather than later.

We are not doing this by writing off nato. We are doing it by establishing a strong, self-sustaining European pillar within the alliance in our own interests.

It’s not true to say that no one forced Germany into “excessive dependence on the United States.” When it comes to military dependence, it was by design. First, immediately after Germany’s defeat in 1945, Germany was forced to abandon all military ambitions, and American troops were stationed in West Germany. Second, Germany was permitted to establish a military, but only as part of nato.

Perhaps Merz alludes to the fact that Germany could have done more in recent years to upend this reality without American opposition. Certainly, the U.S. has removed most restraints.

New Alliances

One of Merz’s most hotly debated assertions was that the U.S. has perhaps already lost its leadership role in the world. He stated:

China is asserting its claim to global dominance. China has laid the groundwork for this over many years with strategic patience. In the foreseeable future, Beijing could meet the United States militarily on equal footing. China systematically exploits the dependencies of others. China is reinterpreting the international order to suit its own purposes.

If there was ever a unipolar moment in history after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it is long gone. The United States’ claim to leadership, at any rate, is challenged, perhaps even lost.

One would think that Germany would want to ally with the U.S. against China, but that’s not the impression you get from Germany’s recent policies. After giving his speech, Merz met the next day with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Wang said, “China is willing to work with Germany to … push the China-Germany all-round strategic partnership to a new level.”

In 2025, China once again overtook the U.S. as Germany’s number one trade partner. While Germany doesn’t want China to be the world’s superpower, it sees cooperation with the Asian giant as a means to advance its own goals.

Merz alluded to strengthening alliances with partners outside the U.S.:

Our greatest strength remains our ability to build partnerships, alliances and organizations that are based on law and rules, founded on respect and trust, and that believe in the power of freedom.

While none of this could apply to China, it was an attack against the U.S., as was this statement:

The culture wars of the maga movement aren’t ours. Freedom of speech ends here when speech is used to attack human dignity and the constitution. We don’t believe in tariffs and protectionism but in free trade.

“Germany’s ties with China [and] India could get stronger,” Deutsche Welle wrote. “As U.S.-Europe ties grow uneasy, Germany might be strengthening its ties with other ‘great powers.’”

Earlier this year, the EU and India signed a free trade agreement. Germany’s foreign minister called India “one of the most important partners” for Germany.

Yet China and India are far less interested in a free world than the U.S. is; both actively support Russia’s war on Ukraine. This would be ironic if Germany’s goal were to uphold the “rule-based order.” Its actual goal is independence from the U.S.

China is not the only nation seeking to challenge the United States’ superpower status; Europe is as well. While Russia and China are becoming increasingly militaristic and uniting Asia behind them, Germany is doing the same in Europe. The stated goal, as French President Emmanuel Macron put it, is building a “third superpower.”

Prophesied Break

Hatred toward the U.S.-led system is growing, and nations are uniting against it, setting the stage for what is prophesied in the Bible.

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry warned in the December 2014 Trumpet: “America’s enemies are going to cause economic problems and bring on destruction in many ways ‘until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee’ [Deuteronomy 28:52].”

Germany is forming new alliances that exclude the U.S. It claims these countries are interested in upholding freedom. But what truly unites them is opposing the U.S. Prophecy reveals they will turn against America.

America’s economy is already crumbling, but it will take a united world to bring down the American superpower in a coming trade war.

We are seeing growing hatred toward America and the amassing economic and military might to besiege America. Ezekiel 5 reveals that America will fall after civil war leads to a devastating famine followed by a military invasion (read Mr. Flurry’s free book Ezekiel—The End-Time Prophet to learn more).

God is angry with America, who “hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither have done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you; Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations. … Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds. Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God; Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity” (Ezekiel 5:6-11).

America’s rebellion against God’s law arouses God’s fury. God has a plan for all mankind. Sadly, many will have to suffer before they accept His commandments.