German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pulled out a surprise birthday gift for US President Donald Trump at the G7 meeting of leading industrialized democracies in France on Tuesday, presenting him with a personalized German football jersey.
Trump, who had already sat down for a working session on Ukraine, seemed little impressed, shaking Merz's hand before swiftly turning towards the group again, leaving the German leader to hand him the jersey from behind.
The US president later held up the back of the shirt for photographers before placing it beside him on the table.
The jersey was imprinted with Trump's last name and the number 47, a nod to the fact that Trump is the 47th president of the United States, one of the host countries of the men's football World Cup that kicked off last week.
In a post on X, Merz published photos of the handover, wishing Trump "a happy belated 80th birthday."
"After all, we're on the same team," he wrote in English.
Trump arrived in the French resort town of Évian on Lake Geneva on the heels of his 80th birthday on Sunday, which he marked by hosting a UFC fight on the White House lawn.
Merz has showered Trump with tailor-made gifts on previous occasions, in what observers see as a thinly-veiled attempt to appease the US president.
When travelling to the White House for his inaugural visit last year, Merz presented Trump with a gold-framed birth certificate of his paternal grandfather, who grew up in western Germany before emigrating to the US.
He also gave Trump a golf club, which the president tested out at the Oval Office.
Merz' latest present elicited some negative reactions from pundits, with news anchors on Sky News describing it as "a strange gift."
It appears unlikely that Trump will be wearing the jersey any time soon, with the US among the record number of teams competing for this year's title.
