Trump was ‘obsessed’ by too many German cars in New York, Merkel claims

 

Trump was ‘obsessed’ by too many German cars in New York, Merkel claims

 

In interview with Corriere della Sera, former German chancellor also suggests her country’s legendary “debt brake” is outdated.

 

November 23, 2024 12:14 pm CET

By Gregorio Sorgi

https://www.politico.eu/article/us-donald-trump-obsessed-german-cars-new-york-angela-merkel-memoire/

 

Donald Trump threatened to slap huge tariffs on the EU to rid Manhattan of German cars, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel claims.  

 

“Donald Trump was obsessed by the fact that, in his view, there were too many German cars in New York,” Merkel said in an interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera to launch her upcoming memoir.

 

 “He had always said that, if he were to become president, he would have imposed such high tariffs that they [German cars] would have disappeared from the streets of Manhattan,” Merkel told the newspaper.

 

As the EU’s most-powerful leader when she was chancellor, Merkel repeatedly clashed with Trump during his first term in the White House, from 2017 to 2021, which was marked by trade tensions and an aggressive rhetoric against Europe.

 

Merkel denied that her U.S. counterpart had a personal grudge against her.

 

“No, in his eyes I embodied Germany,” she told the Italian daily.

 

In the interview, Merkel also pushed back against lingering speculations that she played a role in former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s demise during at the height of the eurozone crisis in 2011.

 

“No, I deny it categorically,” she said. “I have never meddled in the internal affairs of a friendly country.”

 

She instead praised Berlusconi’s efforts to “reach common European compromises,” while conceding that cooperation with him “became more difficult” during the financial crisis.

 

Merkel did not weigh in directly on the upcoming German elections, where her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is expected to emerge as the biggest party, according to polls.

 

She suggested that Germany’s controversial debt brake — which limits the structural budget deficit to 0.35 percent of gross domestic product — should be overhauled.

 

“I believe that in the current situation, in the face of many new challenges, it should be reformed — not to sustain social expenditure, but investments,” Merkel said.