German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Thursday will enter President Trump's televised Oval Office stage, where world leaders before him have been ambushed, scolded and sent home without lunch.

The big picture: Under Trump 2.0, the Oval Office has become a danger zone for world leaders, who at the very least are subject to a series of on-camera spectacles — and at the worst, a full-blown attack. • South African President Cyril Ramaphosa's Washington visit took a dark turn when Trump told an aide to dim the lights before presenting a compilation of clips to back the false allegations of a "white genocide" in South Africa. • Much of what Trump said and showed was inaccurate or debunked, Axios' Russell Contreras reported.

Driving the news: Merz, whose Christian Democratic Union bested the

See Full Page