Donald Trump wiretapping joke overshadows Merkel meet
WASHINGTON: First the UK, now Germany. US President Donald Trump has dragged two key allies into his unsubstantiated allegation of being wiretapped as he tried to make common cause with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel at their joint news conference Friday.
“As far as wiretapping, I guess by this past administration, at least we have something in common, perhaps,” Trump said referring to reports that the NSA had tapped Merkel during former President Barack Obama’s first term.
Trump meant it as a joke, but Merkel showed only the slightest response, unwilling perhaps to be drawn into the unseemly controversy caused by the president’s allegation that he has not backed up with evidence yet.
“Despite what you have heard from the FAKE NEWS, I had a GREAT meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel,” Trump said in a Tweet Saturday morning, pushing back against criticism of his remarks.
Trump’s meeting with Merkel was one of the most significant of his presidency, as the two have seemed to be on opposite ends on many critical issues such as free trade and immigration.
The awkwardness showed in their news conference, which in the end made headlines over a made-up issue, with criticism that the president had, as Strobe Talbott, a former deputy secretary of state, wrote in a tweet “managed, gratuitously, to sour relations with Germany & UK, two key allies & fellow democracies” in a single day.