German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Ukraine’s acting president, Volodymyr Zelensky, put their heads together last night, in a phone call over how to handle U.S. President Donald Trump. Ukraine’s Office of the President [reported]https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/volodimir-zelenskij-i-fridrih-merc-obgovorili-yak-rosiya-rea-106869): “The leaders discussed how Russia is responding to U.S. President Donald Trump’s statement on an energy ceasefire with new attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities…. Friedrich Merz said that Germany is working to organize a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing.” The two “agreed to hold a meeting of national security advisors in the E3–Ukraine format. They also discussed support for our country’s financial resilience. The President and the Chancellor will discuss all the issues in greater detail during their meeting this week.”

Afterwards, in his nightly address Zelensky assured Ukrainians: “We continue entirely constructive discussions with the U.S. President’s team. Our negotiating team is in contact with them virtually every day. Everyone in America knows our position, and many support that very position....” Given recent Trump’s call for Zelensky to be replaced, Zelensky seems to want Ukrainians to believe that others in Washington will come to his rescue.

Earlier in the day, Merz, who has led his Christian Democrats into crushing electoral losses, struck a similar note in explaining why he now will cut the budget for Germany’s pensioners (as he gears up a war machine). “I have no intention of becoming the nation’s darling,” he declared.