Some 72 percent of respondents said the intervention was unjustified, though opinion diverges on how German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Brussels should respond.
The survey gave Germans a concrete choice: to be “rather restrained so as not to provoke Donald Trump” or to “speak out clearly against U.S. actions even if it might upset the president.” Meanwhile, 39 percent favored restraint, citing the complexity of the situation and the need for caution, while half supported a firmer stance, even at the risk of angering Washington.
But the transatlantic rupture extends beyond Venezuela. Trump’s renewed interest in seizing Greenland, tariff threats against European exports and his ambivalent stance on support for Ukraine have deepened unease in Germany, reinforcing the sense that U.S. policy is being driven less by alliance management than by presidential impulse.
That message landed heavily when Trump recently questioned on Truth Social whether NATO would come to Washington’s aid if the U.S. were in need.
From a leader who has repeatedly cast alliances as transactional, the remark struck at a core tenet of German postwar foreign policy.
That this shift is unfolding under Merz — a self-described transatlanticist and former head of the Atlantik-Brücke, a private network that fosters political, business and cultural ties between Germany and the U.S. — underscores just how far the relationship has frayed.