Donald Trump’s inexperience as president has led German Chancellor Angela Merkel to take matters into her own hands and teach him basic facts about diplomacy. Unfortunately, her efforts came up short.
According to a New York Times report, a Merkel spokesperson said that during a phone call with the president, Merkel had “explained” the international community’s obligations toward refugees under the Geneva Convention. In a call around this time, the chancellor also tried to give Trump a lesson on Ukraine’s history and strategic importance.
The Times pointed out:
“German officials were alarmed by Mr. Trump’s lack of knowledge, but they got even more rattled when White House aides called to complain afterward that Ms. Merkel had been condescending toward the new president.”
When that failed, Merkel tried a more delicate approach – approaching Trump’s learning style. The New Yorker explains it perfectly:
“In an effort to express her concerns about Russia while accommodating Trump’s preferred learning style, Merkel came equipped with a map of the Soviet Union from 1982, and an overlay showing that Russian president Vladimir Putin is active in many former-Soviet nations.
“Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Belarus, and Ukraine — he is either trying to get those countries back into his realm or, if he’s not able to, he at least makes sure those countries are totally unattractive to the West,” said an official privy to the German presentation.”
Per usual, Trump showed his ignorance by ignoring Merkel’s requests and instead attempting to make a trade deal with Germany.
“Ten times Trump asked [Merkel] if he could negotiate a trade deal with Germany. Every time she replied, ‘You can’t do a trade deal with Germany, only the E.U.,’” the official said. “On the eleventh refusal, Trump finally got the message, ‘Oh, we’ll do a deal with Europe then.’”
Watch the video, here:
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