Summary

In her memoir Freedom, Angela Merkel reflects on her misjudgment of Donald Trump, initially treating him as “completely normal” before realizing his emotional nature and authoritarian inclinations.

She recounts his attempts to humiliate her, his zero-sum worldview, and fascination with autocratic leaders like Vladimir Putin.

Merkel also critiques Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and his hostility toward Germany.

Addressing her legacy, she discusses tensions with Putin over NATO and acknowledges criticism of her reliance on Russian gas and liberal refugee policies.

    • MacGuffin94@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      I mean, why would she care? He’s was a US business man and she was a German politician. They would have little to no overlap and even when he became president she had more to do than spend the days of would take going over his list of bullshittery. It’s easy to see immediately that he is a terrible person, realizing that he’s quite literally toxic takes actually investing time into.

      • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        One would expect that any competent national leader would’ve requested an intelligence folder about Trum,p at the lastest when he was elected POTUS, and this being Germany, they have the capability to produce one which is very complete and beyond what we common mortals can deduce about the man’s nature.

        Whilst a politician in such a high position in a country isn’t necessarilly more capable of analysing things than a common mortal (though it’s logical to expect they’re significantly better at judging people than most, since that’s a requirement in their profession and to reach such a high position they must be top performers at it), they most certainly have access to much better and deeper information than any of us and to people who can do the analysing for them.

    • MimicJar@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Not really, she’s just being political.

      If you say “I always knew he was a raging narcissist.” then you clearly had a bias against him, so whatever you say next is just a further expansion of that bias.

      If you say “I thought he was normal, but I learned more.” then you went in this with an open mind and people are more likely to listen to what you learned.

      • overload@sopuli.xyz
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        1 month ago

        ITT: only one person who understands why Merkel would say that she thought Trump was “completely normal”.

      • snooggums@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Basically shitty political dialogue where being honest is the worst fucking thing anyone can do even though everyone knows it is bullshit. Humanity is so fucking stupid.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      1 month ago

      Yeah, I don’t understand how people can’t see exactly the type of guy he is within seconds of laying eyes on him. He’s not exactly an enigma, it’s all right there in front of you.

    • Capt. Wolf@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Exactly, anyone just now saying “I didn’t know” or “I thought he was normal” is either stupid or trying to cover their ass.

  • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    As a German, I despise everything about her party, and I never voted for her - also, I oppose her economical policies (which are just the ones of her party).

    But I can absolutely respect her for

    • opening the borders to take in Syrian refugees when no one else would have them - against(!) the racist shitheads that form most of her party
    • being a rational, calming voice in the center of Europe, and trying to mediate between the US and Russia, instead of making us depend on one of them

    Imagine the fat orange turd’s first presidency had already transitioned into a totalitarian regime, and the US had started a war of aggression against Mexico to curb the drug cartels - but committing massive war crimes there. That’d be a really shitty time to be 100% dependent on US & Saudi oil & gas, as many conservative voices in Germany wanted us to be.

  • Gsus4@mander.xyz
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    1 month ago

    Angela Merkel’s first mistake with Donald Trump, she says in her keenly awaited new memoir, was treating him as if he were “completely normal”, but she quickly learned of his “emotional” nature and soft spot for authoritarians and tyrants.

    like everyone else around him. clickbait

      • Gsus4@mander.xyz
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        1 month ago

        “Look at that naïve idiot Merkel, she thought trump was normal”. No, she started trying to treat him as normal guy, but quickly found otherwise.

        That is at best a misleading title and at worst ragebait.

        • babybus@sh.itjust.works
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          1 month ago

          It isn’t a ragebait just because you are raging for no reason. That line is in the article, it is in the book. It isn’t clickbait by definition.

          • Gsus4@mander.xyz
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            1 month ago

            was treating him as if he were “completely normal”, but she quickly learned of his “emotional” nature and soft spot for authoritarians and tyrants.

            According to the first paragraph of the article, the opposite of the headline happened. She never “mistook” him for normal.

  • Don_alForno@feddit.org
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    1 month ago

    Can we please have her back instead of Merz?

    (Never voted for her or her party, never would. But shit is about to hit the fan here way worse than people imagine.)

    • ahornsirup@feddit.org
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      1 month ago

      Merz is going to form a coalition with the SPD and/or the Greens. We’re going to get another 16 years of stagnation, not the fall of the republic.

      • Don_alForno@feddit.org
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        1 month ago

        In 25. In 29 he’ll shamelessly go with the Nazis, mark my words. He’s already talking like they did 5 years ago.

        I also wouldn’t put it past him to copy Voigt, call a vote on certain things and act all surprised when the AfD helps him win against his “partner”.