BERLIN (AP) — Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she felt “sadness” over Donald Trump’s return to power and recalls that every meeting with him “was a competition: you or me.”
In an interview with German weekly Der Spiegel published Friday, Merkel said Trump “is a challenge for the world, especially for multilateralism.”
“What awaits us now is really not easy,” she said, because “the strongest economy in the world is behind this president” with the dollar as the dominant currency.
Merkel worked with four American presidents when she was German chancellor. She was in power during Trump’s first term – by far the most tense period for German-American relations of her sixteen years in power, which ended at the end of 2021.
She recalled as “a typical scene” a famously awkward moment in the Oval Office when she first visited Trump at the White House in March 2017. Photographers shouted “handshake!” and Merkel quietly asked Trump: “Would you like to have a handshake?” There was no response from Trump, who looked ahead with folded hands.
“I tried to persuade him to shake hands with the photographers because I thought in my constructive way that he might not have noticed that they wanted such a photo,” Merkel said. “But his refusal was obviously a calculation.”
The pair shook hands at other points during the visit.
Asked what a German chancellor should know about dealing with Trump, Merkel said he was very curious and wanted details – “but only to read them for his own benefit, to find arguments that strengthen him and weaken others. ”
“The more people there were in the room, the greater his drive to be the winner,” she added. ‘You can’t chat with him. Every meeting is a competition: you or me.”
Merkel said she felt “sadness” over Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris in the November 5 presidential election. “For me it was already a disappointment that Hillary Clinton did not win in 2016. I would have liked to see a different outcome.”
Merkel, 70, a center-right Christian Democrat who has generally kept a low profile since her departure, will release her memoirs next week.
