German media and politicians seem out of touch from reality on NATO and Russian energy deal

Legal Insurrection:
President Donald Trump’s week-long Europe visit not only provoked a ‘day of rage’ from leftist demonstrators in London, it also triggered mainstream German media and liberal politicians, with the former German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel even accusing the U.S. President of striving for a ‘regime change’ in Germany.

Gabriel, who served as Vice-Chancellor and Foreign Minister in the previous Merkel cabinet, toldGerman weekly Der Spiegel that “America led by Trump can’t be trusted. [Trump] gives guarantees to the North Korean dictator and at the same time wants regime change in Germany.”

Gabriel, however, failed to explain how he came to this outlandish assumption.

On Wednesday, Trump kicked off a week-long tour of Europe by criticizing Germany’s multi-billion gas pipeline deal with Russia. “They pay billions of dollars to Russia and we have to defend them against Russia,” he said.

The ensuing response of the mainstream German media was almost hysteric. “Trump begins his EU trip with a verbal attack on Germany,” reported the news network N-TV. “The mightiest military alliance is in crisis: Trump’s unpredictability puts NATO partners in an ordeal–and confront them with the question: how much dispute can the alliance bear?”

Many German media outlets cheered the Merkel government’s defiant stance on the issue of NATO defense spending.

The country’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas rejected “Trump’s demands” that NATO allies should be paying 2 percent of their gross domestic product toward defense, reported German public broadcaster ZDF. Maas instead “demanded more respect for international order and criticized US President Donald Trump,” the broadcaster added.

“Germany rebuffs Trump” over NATO defense spending, reported the German tabloid Bild, “[Merkel’s] spokesman Steffen Seibert made it clear on Friday that government will not accept new [financial] obligations during the current NATO summit.” The tabloid, however, admitted that there were “divergent views” on the issues within the German ruling coalition.

“Trump takes aim at Germany and NATO,” said the German weekly Der Spiegel in its editorial. “Trump turned this week’s NATO summit into a showdown with Germany and its chancellor.” The magazine argued that “the U.S. president seems to view Germany with a mixture of jealousy, admiration and anger.”

Der Speigel hailed the German Chancellor’s standing in the U.S. media landscape, arguing that “the liberal American press that Trump so despises has championed Merkel as its heroine.”

The magazine, however, failed to mention Merkel’s tanking poll numbers at home. According to the last month’s nationwide survey published by Der Spiegel, the German Chancellor was now “more unpopular than ever.”

Most of the German news outlets ignored Trump’s remarks on Europe’s deteriorating migrant situation, focusing instead on his disagreements with UK Prime Minister Theresa May over her handling of the Brexit negotiations.
...
Trump has the blunt style of a businessman rather than a diplomat, but he was not wrong about what he said about the Russian deal and the German's failure to live up to its NATO obligations.  Rather than complaining about hurt feelings, Germany needs to do some introspection on the failure of their military and the failure of their immigration policy as well as the vulnerability of their energy deal with Russia.

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