ÉVIAN-LES-BAINS, France, June 16, 2026 — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz walked across the room before a G7 leaders’ working session Tuesday morning and presented President Donald Trump with a personalized German national football jersey bearing the name “TRUMP” and the number 47 on the back — a belated 80th birthday gift that went viral after cameras captured the moment ahead of a multilateral session on Ukraine, Iran, and global security.
Merz approached Trump before the meeting formally began, held up the jersey to show off the name and number, and handed it to the president. Trump appeared to thank him and placed the jersey on the table among his things. Merz later confirmed on social media that the jersey was a birthday gift, following Trump’s 80th birthday celebration on June 14.
The Moment at the G7
The exchange took place inside the G7 working session venue in Évian-les-Bains, where leaders of the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Canada had gathered alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European Union President Ursula von der Leyen.
Shortly before the jersey exchange, Trump, Merz, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi huddled in a circle and shook hands — a tableau of the alliance’s leaders at a moment of significant geopolitical consequence, just two days after Trump announced the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding.
The session overran its scheduled time by approximately one hour with discussions focused on Ukraine, Iran, global security, and economic challenges. The jersey exchange occurred before multilateral talks were closed to the press.
The World Cup Context
The gift was timed to the backdrop of the 2026 FIFA World Cup — co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico — which has kept football at the center of global attention throughout the G7 gathering. Merz’s choice of the German national team jersey placed the gift at the intersection of Trump’s role as the 47th president and the sporting moment dominating the international calendar.
Germany’s national football team wears the traditional white jersey with black trim for away matches and white at home. The “TRUMP 47” personalization follows the standard format for player jerseys — surname across the shoulders, number below. The number 47 references Trump’s status as the 47th President of the United States, a designation Trump’s team has leaned into heavily in branding and merchandise since his January 2025 inauguration.
Merz’s Prior Gift-Giving to Trump
The jersey was not Merz’s first carefully chosen gift to Trump. During his inaugural visit to Washington on June 5, 2026, Merz presented Trump with a calligraphed and translated copy of the birth certificate of Trump’s grandfather Friedrich Trump, who was born in Kallstadt, Germany — a gift with deep personal resonance for a president who has often invoked his German heritage. According to the Federal Government of Germany, Merz also gave Trump an engraved golf putter featuring the flags of Germany and the United States.
The pattern of personalized, symbolically loaded gifts reflects Merz’s deliberate approach to managing a relationship with a U.S. president whose goodwill is considered essential to European security — particularly as the Trump administration has been reducing U.S. military commitments to NATO and pressing European allies to take greater responsibility for their own defence.
The Merz-Trump Relationship
The jersey gift came against the backdrop of a complicated bilateral relationship. In late April, Trump posted on Truth Social that “The Chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz, thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about! If Iran had a Nuclear Weapon, the whole World would be held hostage” — a sharp public rebuke that followed Merz’s public criticism of Trump’s Iran war strategy.
Despite that friction, Merz traveled to Washington on June 5 for a bilateral meeting with Trump at the White House — his first direct engagement with the president since taking office as chancellor. The two discussed Ukraine, trade, and transatlantic security, with Merz telling reporters afterward: “We both agree on how terrible this war is, we are both looking for ways to stop it very soon.”
The Viral Reaction
Video of the jersey exchange spread rapidly on social media and was described by many observers as awkward — an unusually intimate gesture performed in a formal multilateral setting, with other world leaders seated around the table watching.
In Germany, the gift drew criticism from commentators who viewed it as excessive flattery of a president whose administration has taken an adversarial posture toward European allies on trade, NATO, and Ukraine. Julian Reichelt, editor of German outlet NIUS, called Merz “Der Schleimer von Evian” — the flatterer of Évian — on X. Other observers noted that Merz’s gifts to Trump — the birth certificate, the golf putter, and now the jersey — reflect a consistent strategy of personal diplomacy aimed at keeping German-American relations functional despite deep policy disagreements on multiple fronts.