Tensions show as Trump, Merkel meet
US Prez slammed Nato for not paying their ‘fair share’
Washington, March 18: Stark differences between President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on everything from trade to immigration were in full view during an icy first meeting at the White House on Saturday.
In a frequently awkward joint press conference, Mr Trump and Ms Merkel showed little common ground as they addressed a host of thorny issues including Nato, defense spending and free trade deals.
For most of the 30 minutes in the East Room, Ms Merkel was stony-faced as Mr Trump ripped into Washington’s Nato allies for not paying for their “fair share” for transatlantic defense and demanded “fair and reciprocal trade” deals.
The veteran German Chancellor had arrived at a snowy White House hoping to reverse a chill in relations after Mr Trump’s incendiary election rhetoric.
The visit began cordially, with the pair shaking hands at the entrance of the White House.
But later, sitting sideby-side in the Oval Office, Ms Merkel’s suggestion of another handshake went unheard or ignored by Mr Trump.
There was never going to be an easy rapport between the cautious German Chancellor and impulsive US President.
For years, Ms Merkel — a trained physicist — had been President Barack Obama’s closest international partner, with the two sharing a strong rapport and a similar deliberative approach.
Before coming to office in January, Mr Trump had set the tone by calling Ms Merkel’s acceptance of refugees a “catastrophic mistake” and suggested she was “ruining Germany.” In a similar vein, Ms Merkel has sought to remind — some in the White House would say lecture — the real estate mogul about democratic values.
Comments like that have prompted some of Mr Trump’s fiercest critics to declare Ms Merkel the new “leader of the free world” — a moniker normally taken up by the US President.
During the press conference, Ms Merkel said “it’s much, much better to talk to one another and not about one another, and I think our conversation proved this.” But even the lighter moments were tinged with tension.
Amid a furor over Mr Trump’s unfounded allegations that he was wiretapped by Mr Obama, the new President cracked a joke referring to past revelations that Ms Merkel’s phone had also been bugged by his Democratic predecessor. “As far as wiretapping, I guess, by this past administration, at least we have something in common,” he said. Ms Merkel appeared not to find the humor in what had been a major political scandal. — AFP