FILE – In this March 8, 2010 file picture, a worker cleans a Volkswagen logo in the production line at the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg, German automaker Volkswagen AG says it saw group sales of more than 8 million vehicles last year, putting it ahead of Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. Germany’s dapd news agency cited Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn on Monday, Jan. 9, 2012, as saying in Detroit that VW had delivered 8.156 million vehicles in 2011, a 14 percent rise over the previous year. (AP Photo/dapd/Joerg Sarbach, File)Each time we think we can’t get any more embarrassed or disgusted over the talk and actions of President Donald Trump, we find we can, in fact, be more embarrassed – and disgusted.
Last week, Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel both attended meetings at a NATO summit meeting in Brussels and a G7 meeting in Taormina, Italy. The most contentious issues were on climate and trade, with Trump lecturing the Europeans – especially Germans – and mulling over whether to pull the United States out of the Paris climate deal.
The meeting left Merkel hinting later that her country couldn’t “fully rely” on countries like the United States in part because of “what I experienced in the last few days.”
That led to Trump, back to his Twitter games after returning from his nine-day foreign mess-making mission, tweeting: “We have a MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany, plus they pay FAR LESS than they should on NATO & military. Very bad for U.S. This will change.”
Meanwhile, according to German news reports, Trump had told European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk: “Look at the millions of cars that [Germans] are selling in the United States. It’s horrible. We’ll stop it.”