Trump has been very vocal about his dislike for European Union that his German counterpart leads, and he’s also promised to reorganize NATO in order to make it more effective in tackling 21st-century threats. On one occasion, he even lambasted Merkel for her immigration policy, remarking that “she made a catastrophic mistake, very bad mistake”. Another thing is that Trump also accused the Germans of engaging in unfair trade by not buying many American automobiles, which prompted German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel to publicly rebuke him by saying that “the US needs to build better cars”.
As for Merkel, she couldn’t be more different than Trump, as her liberal ideology makes her the complete opposite of him. She sincerely believes that the EU is an amazing project which must be protected and strengthened at all costs, and she has no problems whatsoever with the current status quo in NATO, though she did publicly back Trump’s insistence that all member states contribute 2% of their GDP towards ‘defense’ like they’re obligated to. As for immigrants an refugees, Merkel is notorious for her open borders policy, and would never even dream of implementing the sort of travel ban that Trump just recently signed. As she sees it, civilizationally dissimilar and non-assimilative new arrivals enrich Germany society, not detract from it, and the welfare state should provide for all of their needs. Again, this sharply contrasts with Trump, whose chief advisor Stephen Bannon promised to dismantle what he called the “administrative state”. Bannon is also thought to be the brains behind Trump’s protectionist trade policies which aim to level the playing field for American domestic businesses, though at the expense of the US’ traditional economic allies like Germany. All told, Merkel’s Germany and Trump’s America are ideological opposites of one another, though they’re nominally united through NATO and the prospective Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, both of which the EU leader will try to strengthen and advance during her meeting with the conservative champion, though with unpredictable success.
Andrew Korybko is joined by Joaquin Flores, editor in chief of Fort Russ and director of Center for Syncretic Studies, and Thomas A. Schwartz, historian of the foreign relations of the US, professor at Vanderbilt University.
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