President Trump on Wiretapping Tweet: ‘You Should Be Talking to Fox’
News reports that Trump and Merkel struggled during her White House visit Friday is in part a result of the world leaders not shaking hands before reporters during a photo op in the Oval Office. Even during a joint press conference, Merkel appeared baffled by Trump’s responses.
Though Trump had criticized NATO on the campaign trail, he reiterated his support for the the treaty at a press conference following the meeting, telling reporters that he isn’t an “isolationist”. (The U.S., which spends more on defense than any nation on Earth, is among those five.) The NATO countries agreed in 2014 to increase spending on defense to 2 percent of their GDP in the coming decade.
After the conference, Fox’s Shepard Smith responded: “Fox News can not confirm Judge Napolitano’s commentary”, apparently referring to the report Trump cited.
“I believe that direct, one-on-one conversations are always much better than talking about each other”, she said in Munich on Monday.
Pressed on what course of action he would take if the answer were no, Trump said: “Well, I’m not saying if not”, he said.
Merkel ruled out the possibility of bilateral talks as members of Trump team suggested.
The two leaders tried to express their common bonds but showed minimal rapport in their first encounter, a departure from Merkel’s warm relations with Obama during his eight years as president.
Visiting with Trump has become a gestural adventure for foreign leaders, after the Republican held Tory Prime Minister Theresa May’s hand during her trip to the White House and repeatedly yanked Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe towards him in an extended hand squeeze last month. “It is based on these values that I wish to offer close cooperation, both with me personally and between our countries’ governments”, she wrote.
“Out goes the president, and a new one comes in”, she said.
Donald Trump greets Angela Merkel on March 17.
German chancellor said that there wasn’t enough time to discuss economic policy in detail yet.
She is in a battle to win re-election for a fourth term later this year in Germany, where Mr Trump’s historically low popularity ratings are on a par with Vladimir Putin.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said yesterday (16 February) that Europe must not cave in to United States demands to raise military spending, arguing that development and humanitarian aid could also count as security.
It was a story in Breitbart – the far-right website once run by his senior adviser Steve Bannon – that appeared to spark Trump’s March 4 tweets accusing Obama of wiretapping the NY skyscraper where he lived and ran his presidential campaign.
He also doubled down on his unproven wiretapping allegation with a reference to 2013 reports that the USA listened in on Merkel’s phone calls.
Donald Trump, who accused his predecessor of wiretapping his New York HQ during the election campaign but has produced no evidence to back the allegation, made the joke during Merkel’s visit to the US.