Trump-Merkel meeting showed a mixture of love and hate!

Not a long time has passed since Trump’s inauguration as the president of the United States, but it is already proved that he is the man of contradictions. In his latest dual behavior on a single issue, he has taken different positions about Germany and his visit with the German Chancellor.

کد خبر: ۶۷۸۳۰۰

تاریخ: ۲۸ اسفند ۱۳۹۵ - ۲۰:۱۴

Tabnak - Not a long time has passed since Trump’s inauguration as the president of the United States, but it is already proved that he is the man of contradictions. In his latest dual behavior on a single issue, he has taken different positions about Germany and his visit with the German Chancellor.

At a joint press conference at the White House on Friday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany would meet its previously stated goal of increasing its military spending to 2 percent of its GDP by 2024.

In his turn, Donald Trump said that he had thanked Ms. Merkel for that commitment, but hinted that he was impatient over whether Germany and other countries would "pay what they owe.” "Many nations owe vast sums of money from past years, and it is very unfair to the United States,” the US president said.

However, Trump evaluated his meeting with Merkel as "great” and although the meeting was really empty from those friendly gestures of Obama era, it seemed that the two sides had managed to build a bridge out of their differences and find a way to keep the bilateral cooperation going.

However, in a tweet today, Trump apparently broke from his yesterday positions, blasting Germany for not paying enough to manage NATO affairs.

In a report of the story the "Washington Post” writes that Trump said Saturday that Germany owes "vast sums of money” to NATO and the US "must be paid more” for providing defense, reiterating his stance that European allies need to meet their end of the bargain if they are to continue benefiting from the military alliance.

The "Los Angeles Times” notes that the real difference in latest Trump’s position comparing to his remarks Friday is that this time, he exactly named Germany as a country not really obliged to its NATO commitments.

In fact, Trump didn't single out Germany for NATO bills as he stood next to Merkel and addressed reporters' questions on Friday at a news conference.

"Many nations owe vast sums of money from past years, and it is very unfair to the United States," Trump said. "These nations must pay what they owe." He then thanked Merkel for Germany's commitment to increase its defense spending.

However, it should be noted that such conflicting view on Germany’s commitments, was not the only interesting point in the latest visit of the two leaders.

American website "Politico” writes that Merkel had several awkward exchanges with Trump Friday. During an Oval Office photo op, Merkel asked to shake the president's hand, which Trump ignored and continued to stare at the cameras. It is unclear whether Trump heard Merkel. The two shook hands earlier in the day.

All in all, the visit and its following events proves the earlier speculations that in the new era during Trump’s presidency, the US’ European allies would have a challenging and tense relations with Washington, with the future of the so-called "trans-Atlantic partnership” becoming unclear.