Merkel
made catastrophic mistake over open door to refugees, says Trump
US
president-elect tells German newspaper Bild that chancellor was wrong
‘letting all these illegals into the country’
Kate
Connolly in Berlin
Sunday
15 January 2017 23.15 GMT
Donald Trump has
called Angela Merkel’s open door policy to refugees a “catastrophic
mistake”, which he said Germany would pay for.
In his first
interview with mainland European media, Trump told the tabloid Bild
that while he had “great respect” for the chancellor, calling her
“magnificent” and a “fantastic chief”, she had made an
“utterly catastrophic mistake by letting all these illegals into
the country”, according to a translation from the German version of
his interview.
“Do you know,
letting all these people in, wherever they come from. And no one
knows where they come from at all. You will find out, you’ve had a
clear impression of that,” he said, referring to the December
attack in Berlin in which 12 people were killed when a lorry driven
by an asylum seeker from Tunisia careered into a Christmas market.
“So I am of the opinion that she made a catastrophic mistake, a
very serious mistake.”
When asked whether
he would be willing, like his predecessor Barack Obama, to support
Merkel’s re-election when she stands for a fourth term as
chancellor next autumn, he said: “I respect her, I like her. But I
don’t know her so I can’t say anything as to who I might support
- in the case that I would support anyone.”
In the simultaneous
interview with Germany’s Bild and the Times, he was pressed as to
whether he would repeat his claim that Merkel’s refugee policy
towards Syrians was “insane”. Trump replied: “I think that it
was not good. I think that it was a big mistake for Germany. In
particular Germany. Germany was (in earlier times) one of the
strictest countries in the world regarding immigration rules.”
He said he would
meet Merkel. “I respect her and I like her, but I think it was a
mistake,” he said. “People make mistakes, but I think it was a
really big mistake.
“I think we should
have set up security zones in Syria. That would have been
considerably cheaper. And the gulf states should have had to pay for
them. After all, they have money like hardly anyone else has. The
whole thing would have been considerably cheaper than the trauma that
Germany is now going through. I would have said: create security
zones in Syria.
“Look, this whole
thing should never have happened. Iraq should never have been
attacked in the first place, right? That was one of the worst
decisions, possibly the worst decision that has ever been made in the
history of our country. We managed to unleash something; it was like
throwing stones into a bees’ nest. And now, it is one of the
biggest screw-ups of all time.
“I have just
looked at something … Oh, I should not show you it at all, because
it’s secret - but I have just taken a look at Afghanistan. If you
look at the Taliban there, they’re just getting bigger and bigger
and bigger every year. And you ask yourself ‘what’s going on
there?’”
The president-elect
also suggested that travel restrictions on Europeans wanting to come
to the US could be tightened. “That could happen, but we’ll see.
I mean, we’re talking here about parts of Europe, parts of the
world and parts of Europe, where we have problems., where they come
in and cause problems. I don’t want to have these problems,” he
said.
Asked if he intended
to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move
that would be hugely controversial, Trump said: “We will see.”
It was put to Trump
that Merkel and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, know each
other well, that he speaks fluent German and she speaks fluent
Russian. He was asked which of the two he trusted more. “First and
foremost, I trust both of them,” he said.
Asked if he
understood why eastern Europeans might fear Putin and Russia, Trump
responded: “Of course. Indeed. I know that. I mean, I understand
what’s going on there. I’ve been saying for a long time, Nato has
problems. It is obsolete because, for a start, it was created many
many years ago and secondly, because countries don’t pay what they
should pay.”
Trump also told Bild
that the US would impose a border tax of 35% on cars that BMW, a
German company, plans to build at a new plant in Mexico and export to
the US.
The US
president-elect said BMW should build its new car factory in the US
because this would be much better for the company.
A spokeswoman for
the carmaker said a BMW Group plant in San Luis Potosí would build
the BMW 3 Series starting from 2019, with the output intended for the
world market. The plant in Mexico will be an addition to existing 3
Series production facilities in Germany and China.
The US
president-elect went on to say that Germany was a great car producer,
borne out by Mercedes-Benz cars being a frequent sight in New York,
but there was no reciprocity. Germans were not buying Chevrolets at
the same rate, he said, making the business relationship an unfair
one-way street. He said he was an advocate of free trade but not at
any cost.
The BMW spokeswoman
said the company was “very much at home in the US,” employing
directly and indirectly nearly 70,000 people in the country.
Asked in the
interview conducted on Friday in New York city, whether there was
anything typically German about him, Trump, whose grandfather was
German, said: “I like orderliness. I like it when things are dealt
with in an orderly way. That’s what the Germans are quite
well-known for. But I also like order and I like strength.”
Trump's
first UK post-election interview: Brexit a 'great thing'
US
president-elect tells Michael Gove that Britain voted to leave EU
because people ‘want their own identity’
Heather Stewart and
Alan Yuhas
Sunday 15 January
2017 22.19 GMT
Donald Trump has
praised Britain as “smart” for opting out of a European Union
that he believes is dominated by Germany and on the brink of
collapse, in an interview with a former Tory leadership contender,
Michael Gove.
The president-elect
promised to draw up a trade deal with the UK “quickly” after
Brexit and said he could understand why voters chose to leave in last
year’s referendum. “You look at the European Union and it’s
Germany. Basically a vehicle for Germany. That’s why I thought the
UK was so smart in getting out,” he told Gove.
Gove, the first
senior Conservative to meet Trump, spent an hour chatting to the
president-elect in what he called his “glitzy, golden man cave”
in Trump Tower, New York, for an interview with the Times.
Trump stressed his
fondness for the UK and said other countries could follow its lead
and leave the EU, something Gove predicted during the referendum
campaign. “I believe others will leave. I do think keeping it
together is not gonna be as easy as a lot of people think,” said
Trump.
Asked whether he
would press ahead with a trade deal with the UK that would come into
force after Brexit, Trump told the former justice secretary
“absolutely, very quickly. I’m a big fan of the UK. We’re gonna
work very hard to get it done quickly and done properly. Good for
both sides.”
He said he was keen
to meet the prime minister after his inauguration, which will take
place on Friday. “I will be meeting with [Theresa May]. In fact if
you want you can see the letter, wherever the letter is, she just
sent it. She’s requesting a meeting and we’ll have a meeting
right after I get into the White House and … we’re gonna get
something done very quickly.”
But Trump also
underlined that he is likely to be a tough negotiating partner,
threatening to slap a 35% import tax on BMW cars if the German
company sticks to a decision to build a plant in Mexico. Such
protectionism would risk retaliatory measures from Germany, which was
the target of many of the most combative comments in the interview.
Trump blamed the
decision of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, to welcome refugees
fleeing war in the Middle East, for jeopardising the stability of
Europe. “I think she made one very catastrophic mistake and that
was taking all of these illegals, you know taking all of the people
from wherever they come from. And nobody even knows where they come
from.
“People,
countries, want their own identity and the UK wanted its own
identity. But I do believe this: if they hadn’t been forced to take
in all of the refugees, so many, with all the problems that it …
entails, I think that you wouldn’t have a Brexit.”
In a separate but
simultaneous interview with the German paper Bild, Trump said he
might contemplate tightening restrictions on Europeans wanting to
travel to the US. “That could happen, but we’ll see. I mean,
we’re talking here about parts of Europe, parts of the world and
parts of Europe, where we have problems, where they come in and cause
problems. I don’t want to have these problems.”
The president-elect
also made a series of provocative comments about foreign policy,
reiterating that he could do a deal with Russia that would result in
sanctions being lifted. And he believed the Nato military alliance is
obsolete and needs reform. “They have sanctions on Russia – let’s
see if we can make some good deals with Russia. For one thing, I
think nuclear weapons should be way down and reduced very
substantially, that’s part of it. Russia’s hurting very badly
right now because of sanctions but I think something can happen that
a lot of people are gonna benefit.”
He said he would
appoint Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, as a Middle East peace envoy.
Trump’s blunt
remarks underlined how radically different his approach will be from
that of his predecessors, who have traditionally sought to build a
close relationship with the EU – and how difficult he will be to
work with for his counterparts from other countries.
Gove, who is usually
regarded as being on the liberal wing of the Conservative party –
and is known for not suffering fools gladly – praised Trump’s
business acumen, saying he “campaigned in 140-character Twitter
storms and intends to govern by spreadsheet”. Gove added:
“Intelligence comes in many forms.”
By securing the
interview, which took place alongside a journalist from German
newspaper Bild, Gove stole a march on the prime minister, who has not
yet confirmed a date to meet her US counterpart. The timing of the
interview was awkward for May, taking place as her advisers draw up
the final draft of a speech on Brexit that she is due to give on
Tuesday. The prime minister will reportedly warn her EU partners that
she is ready to walk out of the single market and the customs union.
Philip Hammond, the
chancellor, set the tone in an interview on Sunday with a German
paper, Welt am Sonntag, saying that Britain would respond
aggressively if it were shut out of the EU’s markets. Asked if
Britain saw its future business model as being a tax haven, Hammond
replied: “Most of us who had voted remain would like the UK to
remain a recognisably European-style economy with European-style
taxation systems, European-style regulation systems etc. I personally
hope we will be able to remain in the mainstream of European economic
and social thinking. But if we are forced to be something different,
then we will have to become something different.”
In the early days
after his election, Trump appeared keener to pose for photos with the
former Ukip leader Nigel Farage than to build a relationship with
Downing Street. He even suggested that Farage would be a good
candidate for US ambassador.
His enthusiasm for
drawing up a new trade agreement with the UK is in stark contrast to
the warnings of Barack Obama during last year’s referendum campaign
that Britain would be at “the back of the queue” for trade talks
if it voted to leave the EU.
Since being sacked
by May, Gove has written a regular column for the Times. He worked at
the newspaper before being elected as the MP for Surrey Heath and is
known to be close to its owner, Rupert Murdoch, whose Fox News
network was often favourable to the Trump campaign.
Trump insisted that
he was determined to keep tweeting when he enters the White House.
“The tweeting: I thought I’d do less of it. But I’m covered so
dishonestly by the press – so dishonestly – that I can put out
Twitter – and it’s not 140, it’s now 280 – I can go bing bing
bing … and they put it on and as soon as I tweet it out – this
morning on television, Fox – ‘Donald Trump, we have breaking
news’.”
The interview took
place as it emerged that Donald Trump has been told by the departing
director of the CIA to adopt a more careful approach to US national
security, with a warning that the president-elect should not be
carelessly “talking and tweeting” without understanding the
threat posed by Russia.
In an outspoken
television interview, John Brennan added that the president-elect’s
recent criticism of the intelligence agencies was offensive, after
Trump had accused them of allowing a controversial dossier about
alleged contacts between his campaign and Vladimir Putin’s Russia
to appear in press reports.
Speaking to Fox News
on Sunday, the outgoing CIA director said: “Now that he’s going
to have an opportunity to do something for our national security as
opposed to talking and tweeting, he’s going to have tremendous
responsibility to make sure that US and national security interests
are protected.”
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