The former German chancellor Angela Merkel has revealed in his memoirs hitherto unpublished details of what he really thinks about the president-elect of the United States, donald trump. According to some excerpts published in the German weekly Die ZeitMerkel acknowledges that the first mistake she had with Trump was treat it as if it were “completely normal”although he soon realized the American’s weakness for tyrants and his apparent fascination with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
The former president has recounted what her first meeting with Trump was like in 2017 in the Oval Office, where the magnate tried to humiliate her by refusing to shake her hand in front of the cameras. “Instead of enduring it stoically, I whispered to him that we should shake hands again“says Merkel.
However, he continues, “as soon as the words left my mouth, I shook my head. How could I forget that Trump I knew exactly what I was doing.? I wanted to give people something to talk about with my behavior, while I had acted like I was having a conversation. with someone completely normal“.
The former chancellor has not stopped there, but has described Trump as an “emotional” person and motivated by grievance and need, something that radically contrasts with the German’s “factual” approach. “It seemed like his main goal was to make the person he was talking to feel guilty… At the same time, I got the impression… that he also wanted the person he was talking to to sympathize with him,” he said.
According to Merkel, “Trump was apparently fascinated with the Russian president,” she said in reference to Putin, and noted that “the politicians with autocratic and dictatorial traits “They had him captivated.”
Merkel’s impressions after her first conversations with Trump draw a very clear image about the figure that he will repeat as president of the United States starting next January, and captures the conflictive relationship that existed between the two: “He saw everything as the real estate developer that he was before entering politics,” he said.
“For him, all countries were rivals in which the success of one meant the failure of another. “I did not believe that prosperity could increase for everyone through cooperation,” Merkel laments in her book.
Merkel began writing her memoirs since she left office as chancellor in 2021. The book, of more than 700 pages titled Freedomwill go on sale next Tuesday November 26 simultaneously in 30 countries, including Spain.
Although it has remained away from the media spotlight Since he resigned as chancellor, he plans to appear in different promotions of his book, both in Germany and abroad.