US President Donald Trump said that Germany was “just two days away from extinction“ after betting on green energy. He made the statement at an election rally in Clarksville, Tennessee, where he criticized policies for the development of wind and solar energy.
“We don't need green energy. Show me a country that uses green energy, and I'll tell you it's on the verge of bankruptcy. You know, Germany already tried it and they were only two days away from extinction“, Trump said, quoted in a Fox News video.The US president did not provide specific data, sources or economic indicators to support the claim that Germany was close to bankruptcy or “disappearance“. It is in line with his previous attacks on Germany's energy transition and his argument that renewables are unreliable and make electricity more expensive.
What the data shows for Germany
Official German statistics show that renewables provided 58.6% of the electricity produced and fed into the grid in 2025. The share of renewable energy in gross electricity consumption was 55.1%, the German Environment Agency reported.
Wind power remained the country's leading source of electricity, and photovoltaic production reached a new annual record. Germany also continues to use coal, natural gas and other conventional sources, but their share in the electricity mix is smaller than that of renewables.
The country is indeed going through a prolonged period of economic weakness. Gross domestic product shrank in 2023 and 2024, but grew by 0.2% in 2025, according to data from the German statistics office “Destatis“. This means stagnation and a slow recovery, not state bankruptcy.
The energy transition debate
Trump has used Germany as an example in his criticism of policies to reduce carbon emissions. In September 2025, he told the UN General Assembly that the country had “gone green and gone bankrupt“. At the time, German and international media pointed out that his assessment mixed Germany's real economic problems with a political dispute over the energy transition and did not correspond to official macroeconomic data.
Berlin has set a goal of renewables providing at least 80% of gross electricity consumption by 2030. The Trump administration is following the opposite course in Washington, promoting coal, oil and natural gas production, as well as the development of nuclear energy. The White House declared October 2026 as “Energy Dominance Month“ and presented reliable baseload capacity as a priority for the American economy.
Sources: foxnews.com, n-tv.de, apnews.com