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Chancellor Angela Merkel’s attempts to engage President Donald Trump just got harder.
Trump lavished praise on the U.K. and France at the weekend “for their wisdom and the power of their fine Military,” after they joined the U.S. in hitting Syrian targets. All Merkel earned was U.S. criticism for not taking part.
“Germany should have joined this P3 group, too,” Richard Grenell, the U.S. nominee to be the next ambassador to Germany, wrote in a tweet on Friday night in Washington.
The U.S. disregard for Germany’s postwar aversion to using military force adds to a sense in Berlin of being sidelined by the Trump administration at a time when global challenges are multiplying. The cooling ties are both a personal snub to Merkel, the longest-serving leader of the Group of Seven and the European Union, and economically alarming, with the threat of U.S. trade tariffs hanging over the EU, and Germany especially.
Where Merkel was feted by President Barack Obama, the Chancellery in Berlin now struggles to even make contact with the White House. A key conduit via Trump’s National Security Adviser HR McMaster closed with his departure.
State Visit
Merkel’s cold shoulder contrasts with Trump’s attitude to French President Emmanuel Macron, whom he has invited to Washington next week for a state visit. Merkel’s team is still trying to organize the chancellor’s visit to the White House later that same week.
As Trump Weighs Syria Strike, Macron Is His Go-to Guy in Europe
The U.S. tried to shame Merkel’s government into helping in Syria, arguing that Germany of all nations should be appalled by the use of chemical weapons on civilians, according to a U.S. official who asked not to be named discussing strategy.
The French did not hesitate for a moment in supporting the U.S., and Macron was superb, said the official. Macron and Trump have a great relationship, the official added.
Merkel’s stance on military action confirmed the negative view of Germany already held by Trump and his team, said Jan Techau, director of the Europe Program at the German Marshal Fund in Berlin.
“The German chancellor stands for rationality and thoughtfulness: two characteristics which do not impress Trump,” Techau said in an interview. “Merkel knows very well that she needs the U.S. president, but with her style it will be rather difficult to get closer to him and bridge the gap which exists.”
Ivanka Channel
There was a time when it looked like the German chancellor could win over Trump. Soon after her first visit to the Trump White House, in March 2017, she invited the president’s daughter Ivanka to Berlin for a conference on women in business, calculating that she might gain access to Trump by winning the confidence of his daughter.
More than a year and multiple Trump tweets critical of Germany later, Merkel realizes that her charm offensive has failed. She is left out of the president’s small circle of favored leaders. Such is the sense of frustration in Berlin that one senior German official quipped perhaps the chancellor should take up golf to get closer to Trump.
Trade Deadline
The personal dynamics matter more than ever as Trump has given the European Union a May 1 deadline to come up with proposals to avert the threat of tariffs on steel and aluminum. That common threat will be the focus of Macron’s trip to Berlin this week as he and Merkel coordinate a joint approach to Trump on trade, a French government official said.
While the EU negotiates on trade matters, Germany’s main goal is to eliminate the deadline and start a broader trade discussion with the U.S. Merkel will push her point with Trump in Washington even though she realizes that her visit will be overshadowed by Macron’s.
Mattis, Kelly
Yet the feeling in the Chancellery is one of growing skepticism that Trump will accept such a deal, and a fear that in the event of a trade war Germany could be crushed between the U.S. and China. Those worries add to Trump’s apparent obsession with Germany’s car industry and its success at America’s expense, plus his criticism of what he sees as Germany’s unwillingness to raise its defense budget.
There is also concern in the Chancellery that Trump surrounds himself with people who will not or cannot urge caution: Defense Secretary James Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly are seen in Berlin as among the last two exceptions.
A further flashpoint is coming in May with Trump’s decision on whether to certify the Iran deal. Grenell, whose nomination as German envoy has awaited a Senate vote for months now, has ties to John Bolton, who succeeded McMaster in the post and is a vocal critic of the Iran deal, which Germany helped negotiated and continues to support.
U.S.-German ties are not entirely frayed, however. Mattis informed German Defense Minster Ursula von der Leyen of the Syrian action before it took place. And an adviser downplayed the idea that the U.S. had ever expected Germany to join in the strike on Syria, saying the U.S. was appreciative of its political support.
The threat of a genuine rift is still very real in the minds of hardliners in the Trump administration, for both “legitimate and wildly illegitimate reasons,” said Constanze Stelzenmuelller, Robert Bosch senior fellow at the Brookings Institute in Washington.
“Connecting with the president is a matter of luck as much as skill, although it can be done, and some people are clearly better at it than others,” said Stelzenmueller. “But the reality is that the German position is vulnerable.”
— With assistance by Helene Fouquet, Toluse Olorunnipa, and Margaret Talev
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BEIRUT — The Latest on developments following the U.S.-led airstrikes on Syria (all times local):
1:10 p.m.
A Syrian government official says his country is “fully ready” to cooperate with the fact-finding mission from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons that’s in Syria to investigate the alleged chemical attack that triggered U.S.-led airstrikes.
Faisal Mekdad, Syria’s deputy foreign minister, said on Monday that government officials have met with the delegation, which has been in Damascus for three days, a number of times to discuss cooperation.
The OPCW arrived in Syria a day before the joint punitive airstrikes from the United States, Britain and France a week after the alleged chemical attack in Douma, where activists say more than 40 people were killed.
The OPCW mission has yet to visit Douma, where government and Russian police deployed soon after the rebels in the town surrendered following the chemical attack.
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1 p.m.
A key group of world and regional powers is meeting at the urgent request of Russia to discuss the long-troubled cease-fire in Syria in the wake of airstrikes by the West on Syria.
Russia requested the meeting of the International Syria Support Group’s cease-fire task force after the airstrikes in Syria over the weekend by the United States, France and Britain. Moscow, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, has sharply criticized the strikes.
Britain, France and the United States say they took the military action following alleged use of chemical weapons by Assad’s forces on a rebel-held area northeast of Damascus.
The task force is hosted by the U.N. Syria envoy’s Geneva office and is co-chaired by Russia and the United States. Participants of the task force rarely speak to the media.
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12:50 p.m.
NATO’s secretary general says the weekend’s U.S.-led strikes will reduce the Syrian government’s capabilities of carrying out new chemical attacks.
Jens Stoltenberg also says the strikes by the United States, France and Britain were a “clear message” to Syrian President Bashar Assad, to Russia and Iran that the use of chemical weapons is not acceptable and that the allies would not stand by and watch.
Stoltenberg spoke in an interview with Turkey’s NTV television on Monday. The TV broadcast his comments with Turkish translations.
The NATO chief is Turkey for talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other officials.
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10:40 a.m.
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini says the bloc wants to use a major meeting on Syria next week to give impetus to U.N. peace moves following Western airstrikes on the country.
Mogerhini said on Monday “there is the need to give a push to the U.N.-led process.”
Speaking before chairing talks among EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, she said that “people are suffering, people are dying, and I think the whole international community has to take responsibility for this.”
More than 70 delegations are expected to attend the April 24-25 Syria donor conference in Brussels.
Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok said: “We should keep on pushing for a solution through the U.N. Security Council. It’s the only way forward.”
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10:20 a.m.
Prime Minister Theresa May is set to face British lawmakers to explain her decision to launch airstrikes against Syria without a vote in Parliament.
Britain, the United States and France hit targets in Syria Saturday in response to a reported chemical attack in Douma.
Parliament returns Monday after a spring break, and was not consulted about the action. The government is not legally bound to seek Parliament’s approval for military strikes, though it is customary to do so.
May plans to tell lawmakers that the airstrikes were “in Britain’s national interest,” were carried out to stop further suffering from chemical weapons attacks and had broad international support.
The government says it will seek an emergency parliamentary debate on the airstrikes Monday, though that is unlikely to satisfy angry opposition lawmakers.
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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