Angela Merkel recalls Trump's 'fascination with the sheer power' of strongmen like Putin and Kim

Merkel and Trump meet in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 17, 2017. Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has recalled her impression of Donald Trump during his first term in the White House, saying the new American president-elect showed a “fascination with the sheer power” of strongmen like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

“The way he spoke about Putin, the way he spoke about the North Korean (leader) – obviously apart from critical remarks he made – there was always a kind of fascination with the sheer power of what these people could do,” Merkel said in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

In the wide-ranging interview, Merkel discussed her new memoir, “Freedom,” which reflects on her 16 years as the first woman to lead Europe’s largest economy. Over her premiership, the continent weathered multiple crises – from the economy to migration, from climate to a pandemic. Shortly after she left office, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine that has raised questions about the extent to which Germany relied on cheap Russian gas and cast some of her decisions in a harsher light.

In the book, Merkel writes how her life splits neatly into halves. She spent the first 35 years of her life studying and working as a chemist in communist East Germany. But since the crumbling of the Berlin Wall, the second 35 years of her life have been spent in a free, liberal democracy – a system she now fears is under threat.

“These days, liberal democracies are under onslaught. They are under pressure,” Merkel told CNN.

She recalled first meeting Trump at the White House in 2017. Sitting by the famous fireside in the Oval Office, the two leaders were asked by reporters to shake hands for a photo. Trump appeared to snub the request, although they shook hands at other times during Merkel’s visit.

Merkel said Trump “lives off acting unconventionally” and often tries to “put down a marker.”

In the book, Merkel writes that Trump was “clearly fascinated” by Putin and “captivated” by politicians with an autocratic bent.

“My impression always was that he dreamt of actually overriding maybe all those parliamentary bodies that he felt were in a way an encumbrance upon him, and that he wanted to decide matters on his own,” Merkel told CNN. “In a democracy – well, you cannot reconcile that with democratic values.”

Merkel’s comment echoed those made by several US officials who worked closely with Trump during his first administration. John Kelly, who was Trump’s longest-serving White House chief of staff, said before November’s election that Trump fit “the general definition of fascist” and that he spoke positively of the loyalty of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi generals. Trump’s campaign denied the exchange.

“I wouldn’t want to make any comment on this,” Merkel said of Kelly’s remarks.

CNN has reached out to a Trump representative for comment.

A resurgent Russia

Putin, with whom Merkel enjoyed closer ties than many other European leaders, also loomed large over her premiership. Merkel recalled how Putin, knowing that she had once been wounded by a dog and was uneasy around them, had infamously brought his large Labrador to a meeting between them in 2007.

“It’s a little, small attempt to test the waters – you know, how resilient a person is, how strong,” Merkel said. “It’s a power play.”

Despite relatively cordial relations between Moscow and Europe, Merkel said things began to sour after the 2008 North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in the Romanian capital, Bucharest. NATO declared that both Ukraine and Georgia would eventually join the defence alliance, without giving them a plan for how to get there.

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“I was firmly convinced that Putin would not allow this to happen without taking action, so I thought it was wrong to actually put this on the agenda at the time,” Merkel said, particularly when Ukraine’s government and people “were split right down the middle.”

During Merkel’s premiership, Russia won a five-day war against Georgia in 2008 and launched its first invasion of Ukraine in 2014, annexing Crimea and occupying territory in the east of the country. Since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, European leaders have been criticized for not being sufficiently alert to the threat from Moscow and allowing its territorial aggression to go unchecked.

With the war in Ukraine approaching its fourth year, and both militaries having huge and hard-to-sustain losses, talk is turning to whether the war can end with a lasting peace. Trump, who takes office next month, has said he would end the war within a day, without specifying how.

Merkel warned that negotiating with Putin is a fraught task. She recalled confronting Putin about Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014 – an operation the Kremlin initially sought to obfuscate, claiming the soldiers fighting in Ukraine were not part of Moscow’s army, giving rise to the myth of “little green men” who were fighting independently.

Merkel said Putin later conceded to her that “he had lied” about this.

“There was a turning point in our relationship quite clearly that I had to be extremely cautious in my approach toward him. So you cannot only trust in an agreement with him – that’s absolutely correct,” she said. Negotiations to end the war in Ukraine must provide Kyiv with “security guarantees,” she added.

Despite presiding over a period of relative calm in Europe, Merkel’s critics say that events in recent years have clouded her legacy. In particular, they argue that Germany’s extreme reliance on cheap Russian gas helped bolster Moscow’s economy and its influence within Europe.

Asked whether she had made errors of judgment during her premiership, Merkel said: “We always have to look at matters under the conditions we were in then. I don’t think it makes a whole lot of sense to say from today’s vantage point in hindsight.”