Awkward! Trump snubs Merkel handshake
DONALD Trump and Angela Merkel’s first meeting at the White House yesterday was overshadowed by claims that he refused to shake her hand.
There was a lack of warmth in his meeting with the German Chancellor, whom he has publicly criticised over her refugee policy.
Even though they shook hands when she arrived at the White House, he appeared to ignore her when she suggested they did it again for photographers in the Oval Office.
Footage shows her turning towards her host and saying: ‘Do you want to have a handshake?’ But the President simply stared ahead, as if snubbing her. Although it is possible that he hadn’t heard her, photographers were asking them to shake hands.
As Mrs Merkel looked searchingly at him before smiling weakly at the gathered media, Mr Trump had asked Press photographers to ‘Send a good picture back to Germany, please’.
The President had a 19-second handshake with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, and even held hands with Theresa May during her first visit to the White House.
During the Press conference with Mrs Merkel, the President also refused to take responsibility for accusing GCHQ of tap- ping his phones. Asked about his claims that Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower, he light-heartedly alluded to revelations that spies in the Obama administration had tapped Mrs Merkel’s mobile phone. ‘At least we have something in common,’ he said as he smiled at her.
Mr Trump’s first meeting and Press call with her were dominated by talks on trade. He repeatedly complained that the US had been a victim of unfair trade deals with Germany, while Mrs Merkel defended global free trade and the EU.
Discussing wiretapping, Mr Trump had refused to back down after the White House aired an unverified claim that the British spy agency monitored him during last year’s election campaign at Mr Obama’s request.
Instead, the President shifted the blame to Fox News, whose commentator, Judge Anthony Napolitano, first claimed that GCHQ had been involved. Describing Mr Napolitano as a ‘very talented legal mind’, Mr Trump told a German reporter: ‘We said nothing… you shouldn’t be talking to me. You should be talking to Fox.’
US officials played down reports that the White House had formally apologised to the British Government over the claims. And Mr Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer later echoed the President’s defiant tone.
‘I don’t think we regret anything,’ he said. ‘As the President said, I was just reading off media reports.’
It emerged last night that Mr Spicer had thrashed out the disagreement with Britain’s US ambassador Sir Kim Darroch at a St Patrick’s Day reception in Washington.
Downing Street said it had been assured the ‘allegations won’t be repeated’.
Fox News distanced itself from the controversy last night, saying it ‘knows of no evidence of any kind… full stop’ to support the allegations about GCHQ.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned North Korea yesterday the US may take pre-emptive military action because America’s ‘strategic patience’ with the rogue state had run out.
‘I don’t think we regret anything’