Pray For President Donald J. Trump
Trump’s tough words for Merkel and May raise questions about his relationships with female leaders at Chequers Theresa May
President Trump praised
British Prime Minister Theresa May
President Trump praised
British Prime Minister Theresa May the day after a London tabloid
published an interview where Trump blasted May's Brexit plan.
President Trump has spent much of his trip to Europe this week lashing out at two of the most powerful women in the world.
The
barrages aimed at British Prime Minister Theresa May and German
Chancellor Angela Merkel prompted diplomats on both sides of the
Atlantic to ask why a president who prizes his “great chemistry” with
world leaders seems to go out of his way to damage two powerful female
allies.
The two leaders are both in precarious
positions politically at home, trying to hold together fragile
coalitions and hold on to power. Trump’s critiques, followed by his
over-the-top praise for them as friends, only complicate their
positions.
The most recent attack came Thursday night when Trump told the Sun, a British newspaper, that May had ignored his advice
on Britain’s exit from the European Union, placing a bilateral trade
deal with the United States in jeopardy. The issue is especially fraught
as May scrambles to hold together a fragile coalition.
“I
actually told Theresa May how to do it, but she didn’t agree,” Trump
said of his advice to May on exiting the E.U. “She didn’t listen to me.”
He then suggested that one of her main conservative rivals would make a
“great prime minister.”
Standing next to May at
a Friday news conference, Trump shifted his tone — describing May as an
“incredible woman” doing a “fantastic job” and asserting that the
British tabloid did not quote his more positive remarks about the prime
minister.
German
Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Trump at the NATO summit in
Brussels on Wednesday. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)
May
was careful not to praise or criticize Trump, who is highly unpopular
in the U.K. But Trump filled the void. “I am doing a great job!” he
said.
Trump’s tense relationship with Merkel and
May is rooted in real policy disagreements on issues such as trade,
defense spending and immigration, U.S. and European officials said.
But
other analysts noted that the two female leaders had been less willing
than others, such as French President Emmanuel Macron or Japanese Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe, to cater to his ego. “I think it is much more about
their approach to him,” said Danielle Pletka, the vice president for
foreign policy at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “Both
of them have been confrontational toward him, and that’s not a good way
to manage Donald Trump in my opinion.”
Then
there was a third explanation touted by several European diplomats over
the past week: their gender. Trump has been particularly quick to praise
self-styled strongmen, from North Korea leader Kim Jong Un to
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to Russian President Vladimir
Putin, who he is slated to meet Monday in Helsinki.
“Everyone noted that Trump has been particularly harsh to the two female world leaders,” said one European official.
Added
a second European official: “He has been more and more anti-E.U. He
doesn’t care about allies. But he particularly has a problem with Merkel
and May — who are women.”
The officials, like
other former and current European and U.S. officials interviewed for
this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe candidly
the president’s interactions with Merkel and May.
White
House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Trump had a good
relationship with both women. She noted that in Brussels, Trump gave
Merkel “a huge hug, kissed both her cheeks and announced to everyone
that he loves her.”
His assessment of Germany
on Friday was less enthusiastic: “It’s a very sad situation,” he said
regarding the immigration policy that Merkel has championed.
During
a news conference Friday with May and Thursday night over dinner at
Blenheim Palace, Trump lavished the British leader with compliments.
Shortly after he left the palace, Trump’s interview with the Sun landed.
“May has wrecked Brexit . . . US deal is off,” the tabloid blared.
Before
he arrived in London, Trump slammed Germany as “captive to Russia,”
citing its reliance on Russian natural gas. His remarks drew a clipped
rejoinder from the chancellor. “I myself experienced a part of Germany
that was controlled by the Soviet Union,” she said. “I am very happy
today that we are united in freedom as the Federal Republic of Germany.”
At the root of Trump’s testy relationship with May and Merkel is Trump’s growing anger over trade deficits.
“Trump
is obsessed with trade and blames Merkel — incorrectly in my view — for
the U.S.-E.U. trade deficit,” said Kristen Silverberg, a U.S.
ambassador to the E.U, during the George W. Bush administration.
Trump
frequently complains to Merkel and to his aides about E.U. trade
practices that favor Germany’s automobile industry at the expense of the
United States.
His frustration with Merkel
over the Russian natural-gas issue also has been building for months.
“Putin has got her by the balls with that gas pipe,” Trump complained
earlier this year, according to two senior White House officials who
heard the remark. At the time Trump was worried that Merkel might not
follow through on a plan to expel Russian diplomats and suspected spies
for the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy and his daughter on British soil.
One senior administration official said Trump often compliments Merkel as “a tough cookie.”
Meanwhile,
Trump’s conversations with May are rarely convivial or easy. A former
special adviser to May, who was present for calls and meetings with
Trump, said the American president often began their discussions by
encouraging Britain’s speedy withdrawal from the E.U.
“Have you left yet?” the president asked, according to the adviser. “When are you going to leave?”
Brexit
is one of the most fraught political issues May faces, and her
insistence on a gradual or “soft” withdrawal recently led to the
resignation of two of her most important cabinet members — Boris
Johnson, who was her foreign minister, and David Davis, who was her
Brexit secretary.
Beyond
those substantive disagreements, stylistic differences have contributed
to Trump’s strains with Merkel and May. Trump rarely follows
staff-provided talking points in his conversations with world leaders.
During May’s first lunch a the White House, he boasted of the large
crowd of political supporters that would be coming to Washington that
weekend for an antiabortion march. The comments unnerved several of
May’s female advisers.
Trump has boasted to May
about his “wonderful” golf courses and properties in the United Kingdom
and complained about his relationship with Nicola Sturgeon, the
Scottish first minister, who he said has treated him badly in business.
“It was like pinning Jello to the wall,” the former May adviser said of the discursive talks.
Merkel,
a German official said, tried to persuade Trump with detailed
information, particularly on trade. Gaining little traction with the
mercurial president, German officials have instead relied on
conversations with others in Trump’s Cabinet.
Both
women, though, have sought to achieve peace with Trump. May delivered a
rare rebuke of Trump in November for retweeting an inflammatory,
anti-immigrant video from a far-right U.K. political group. Since then
she has told advisers that she will find a way to work with him — no
matter what.
“She would say, ‘He does things in an interesting way and you just have to get on with it,’ ” the ex-May adviser said.
James McAuley in Paris contributed to this report.
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