Trump fires back after Merkel criticism
• Tweet again chides Germany over trade and defence
President Donald Trump blasted Germany anew over trade and defence, ratcheting up a dispute with Chancellor Angela Merkel that risks getting personal and undermining a transatlantic bond that is the bedrock of USEuropean relations.
Trump’s comments came in an early-morning tweet on Tuesday issued just as Merkel hosted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Berlin, where they held a joint cabinet meeting and signed co-operation agreements. Modi suggested that India would adhere to the Paris climate accords, while Trump made up his mind.
“We have a MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany, plus they pay FAR LESS than they should on NATO & military,” the US president posted on Twitter. “This will change.”
The message came minutes after Merkel and Modi held a joint press conference in which the German leader called India a “reliable partner with respect to big projects”.
That contrasted with her comments in Munich on Sunday that dependable transatlantic ties that formed the basis of German foreign policy since the Second World War “are to some extent over”.
Trump’s tweet showed the deterioration of links with a key Nato ally, yet his timing also highlighted Germany’s web of relations with international partners who broadly share Merkel’s free-trade outlook and conviction on combating climate change. After hosting Modi, she is due to meet with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday.
In a speech to a GermanIndian business forum later on Tuesday, Merkel took another tilt at a president elected on a ticket of “America First”, referring to “a whole series of protectionist tendencies” emerging worldwide. She said: “It is necessary to be open to achieve fair trade conditions.”
While it is unclear whether Merkel has deliberately picked a fight with Trump or misspoken and bitten off more than she can chew, challenging his stance is popular in Germany.
As she campaigns for a fourth term in September elections, polls suggest that Merkel has overwhelming backing among German voters, and even among her political opponents, for taking a stand.
It is the “calling of our times to stand up to this man with everything that we represent,” Social Democrat Martin Schulz, Merkel’s main election challenger, said on Monday.
It is also not the first time a German chancellor has clashed with a US president. Merkel’s Social Democratic predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, publicly disavowed George W Bush’s invasion of Iraq in a transatlantic rift that Merkel worked to repair upon her election in 2005.
Alongside Modi, Merkel said that while transatlantic relations are of “paramount significance,” the EU had to forge its own path in the world “considering the current situation”.
“What I said was simply to indicate that, here are even more reasons beyond those we already have that Europe needs to take its destiny into its own hands,” she said.
Modi welcomed a stronger global role for the EU and lauded the bloc’s most powerful leader. India would move forward on its climate agenda even if the US exited the Paris agreement, he said, adding politicians have “absolutely no right” to put in jeopardy the environment for future generations.