The stunning altercation between the two men, which ended with Zelensky being thrown out of the White House, came just hours after Germany's centre-right CDU/CSU and centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) began exploratory talks on forming a new coalition government.
The CDU/CSU came first in last week's general election and its leader Friedrich Merz, a fervent supporter of Ukraine, has said he wants a new government in place by Easter.
That would be a brisk pace by the normal, sedate standards of German politics where coalition talks can drag on for months on end.
READ ALSO: Potential hurdles on road to new German government
But with continued US support for Ukraine now in fresh doubt after Trump shouted in Zelensky's face that he had to "make a deal or we're out", calls are growing for a quicker tempo in the negotiations.
"Everything has become more urgent," senior CDU lawmaker Johann Wadephul told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
Nevertheless, while negotiators are continuing to work over the weekend, a break is still planned for Ash Wednesday next week.
"Wouldn't it be appropriate to negotiate the central points as quickly as possible and then move straight to full coalition talks?" a comment piece in the Spiegel magazine asked.
"Germany needs a government with a parliamentary majority and a chancellor who is able to communicate as soon as possible," it said, adding: "The next coalition will face a historic task."
Ticking clock
While the talks towards a new government inch forward, current Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Saturday the current political limbo must not stand in the way of speedy further help for Kyiv.
She called for the current parliament, which can still take decisions before new MPs take their seats at the end of the month, to quickly sign off on a €3 billion ($3.1 billion) package of aid for Ukraine.
That has been blocked for weeks by disagreements on how to finance it.
All of Germany's centrist parties are united on the need for urgent extra spending for the threadbare armed forces, but this will require a two-thirds majority in parliament because of the constitutionally enshrined "debt brake".
The centrist parties have this majority in the current parliament but have so far not been able to agree on whether the debt brake should be reformed or if a special fund should be set up to circumvent it.
The clock is ticking to reach an agreement as in the newly elected parliament the far-right, Moscow-friendly Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the far-left Linke party will have more than a third of seats between them and will be able to veto any such plan.
'No work experience' for Merz
While Merz is almost certainly going to be Germany's next leader, it is outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz who will represent Berlin at emergency talks among Kyiv's European backers in London on Sunday.
However, the Spiegel asked: "What weight will his word have?"
It points out that the SPD's "Scholz has been seen as a lame duck even before the election", in which the party suffered heavy losses.
The CDU's foreign affairs spokesman Juergen Hardt told the paper that Scholz should take Merz with him to London as "the next chancellor of Europe's biggest economy should be involved in all talks".
Scholz's spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told reporters earlier this week that only Scholz would represent Germany among heads of government as long as he was still in office.
"It is not planned for Mr Merz to do any work experience before he takes over the post" of chancellor, Hebestreit said, and insisted the chancellery was providing Merz with all the necessary information.
Scholz will also go alone to EU talks on defence scheduled for Thursday.
Spiegel countered that taking Merz along to such meetings "may indeed be unusual" but points out that "the times we are in are unusual too".
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