Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday called on Europe to stand up to President Trump on tariffs and said Vice President Vance’s views on “freedom” represented a threat to democracy, during an event in Greece promoting her memoir.
According to Politico, Merkel recalled that Trump declined to shake her hand during a March 2017 Oval Office meeting, then shook Merkel’s hand when cameras were no longer around.
“I made the mistake of saying, ‘Donald, we should shake hands,’ and he didn’t. He wanted to draw attention to himself. That’s what he wants: to distract and have everyone look at him,” the former chancellor said.
“You can see this in what he is doing with the tariffs. Ultimately, he must deliver good results for the American people. He has to prove his abilities, at least to his own country,” she added.
Merkel also pushed Europeans to “stand united and not be intimidated when Trump imposes more tariffs on the bloc, but we should retaliate with tariffs of our own,” Politico reported.
“I’m not saying we should break off relations with the U.S., but we must negotiate. Even the U.S. cannot survive alone,” Merkel said, according to the outlet. “I see a problematic development. When Vice President Vance says, ‘We are partners, and we will only support you if you agree with our concept of freedom,’ which means no rules and no controls, that is indeed a threat to our democracy.”
The European Union is scrambling to hammer out a trade deal with the U.S. by Trump’s July 9 deadline, when his “reciprocal” tariffs on the bloc are set to kick in.
Trump and Merkel have long had a prickly relationship. The president reportedly told the German leader she was “stupid” and accused her of being in the pocket of Russians during a call in his first term.
Merkel said in an interview late last year that Trump showed “fascination” with autocrats like Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
“The way he spoke about Putin, the way he spoke about the North Korean [leader] — obviously apart from critical remarks he made — there was always a kind of fascination with the sheer power of what these people could do,” Merkel told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
