Angela Merkel Shares Sober View Of American-German Relationship Under Trump

Angela Merkel Shares Sober View Of American-German Relationship Under Trump

French President Emmanuel Macron swerved to avoid President Trump — so that Macron could be first to greet German Chancellor Angela Merkel instead, as the leaders met in Brussels last week. The American president constantly sought to put himself in the center of every action, or simply refused to be part of the photo op. 

Over the weekend, German Chancellor Merkel painted a sober vision of German-American relations. 

German chancellor Angela Merkel gave a more sobering view of Trump's trip to Europe, arguing yesterday at an election rally in Munich that "The times in which we could completely depend on others are on the way out. I've experienced that in the last few days."

Polls show, writes The Atlantic, that German confidence in the United States, already lowered under Obama, has collapsed under Trump to a level barely better than Putin’s Russia. Facing elections in the fall—and reassured that she has gained a congenial partner in France’s President Macron—Merkel has served formal notice that she will lead the German wandering away from the American alliance. 

"We must really take our destiny into our own hands,” she continued, in comments perceived as a rebuke of the presidential visit. Merkel assured Germans that they would remain friends with America, Great Britain, and Russia, but “we must fight for our own future and our fate ourselves as Europeans.”  Read on.