President Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel Hold Press Conference

Terror attacks across Europe and over a million refugees that Germany has received in last year contributed to the popularity of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, while Merkel’s popularity has sunk to a four-year low.

Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert was quoted by a German news agency saying she was “convinced that even the necessary, resolute fight against terrorism doesn’t justify putting people of a particular origin or particular faith under general suspicion”.

German carmakers in particular have been a favorite target of Mr. Trump, who has frequently taken to social media to accuse BMW and others with exploiting what he says is an unfair trade relationship with the US – one that led to a $65 billion trade deficit with Germany in 2016.

“She’s used to awkward meetings”, Constanze Stelzenmueller, an expert on German and trans-Atlantic policy at the Brookings Institution, told McClatchy.

Merkel had good relationships with Trump’s predecessors, Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama.

The daughter of a Lutheran minister, Merkel has the focus of the physicist she is.

Before the United Kingdom’s Brexit vote last June, Trump backed the country’s withdrawal from the European Union, and after the “leave” side won, he predicted other countries would follow suit.

President Donald Trump will meet Friday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and a group of prominent German CEOs with a vested interest in maintaining a beneficial business relationship with the U.S.

The two leaders are expected to meet, have lunch and host a joint news conference. Merkel will be joined by top officials at German companies including Siemens and BMW.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone call with the Chinese president, in which they agreed to work for free trade, had no connection to her visit to Washington that is overshadowed by trade issues, a German government spokesman said on Friday. In February Trump dispatched Mike Pence to Europe, where the vice president told EU leaders in Brussels that the objective of his trip was to demonstrate “the strong commitment of the United States to continued cooperation and partnership with the European Union”. Their aides have met.

Issues like NATO, the EU, North Korea and Islamic State will mean there’s plenty to talk about aside from their differing stance on refugees. It has been reported that Trump is likely to probe Merkel on the most effective policy for dealing with Putin over a range of issues without entailing a higher economic burden on U.S. or extended military force deployments.

With Trump extremely unpopular in Germany, Merkel is left to walk a tightrope between maintaining her posture as the values-driven anti-Trump and demonstrating that she can preserve the transatlantic partnership, says Jeffrey Brown, a transatlantic policy specialist at the Bertelsmann Foundation in Washington.

She said that one option for Germany would be to file a suit against the President at the WTO. “Of course, she’s been doing this for more than a decade”.

“She does not do this in an arrogant way … wagging a finger if you will”, she adds.

“He’s going to be very interested in hearing her insights on what it’s like to deal with the Russians”, the official said. And Trump should, too. Her first attempt on Monday was scrapped because of a snowstorm on the USA eastern seaboard.

The encounter will be aimed at building a personal rapport with a European partner who was among former President Obama’s strongest allies and global confidantes, White House officials told the Associated Press earlier this month. She has acknowledged the contest could be hard and has stressed a need for stability after Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. In an interview with The Times of London in January, he called the European Union “a vehicle for Germany”. Germany, for instance, which has Europe’s largest economy, now spends only 1.2 percent of G.D.P. on its military, though it increased spending 8 percent past year.

“We need to reform first”, Macron said. Should the far right under Marie Le Pen sweep into office (highly unlikely) Mrs. Merkel’s campaign for a fourth term will face even stronger headwinds.

Then there’s her constancy. Without directly criticising the latest ban imposed by the Trump administration on the entry of Muslims from select countries, Merkel has continued to express her views espousing support for providing succour and rehabilitation to Muslims fleeing conflict zones such as Syria.