Monday, March 20, 2017

Does Anyone Out There Think....

Deutsches Chancellor Angela Merkel had a good summit in DC this week? Trump basically called her a mark for refugees and terrorists on the campaign trail and a military moocher to her face. He wouldn't even shake hands with her...churlishness indeed.
I suspect that Snub may pay Merkel some short term electoral dividends going forward...at the same time she does need him erect and nominally functioning at the EU Economic Summit in July although based on last week's performance she might be conjuring with finding a pretext to delay the whole mishaugas.
Experiencing Trump's unreliability up front must be giving Merkel second thoughts about that much rumored proposal out of Poland to arm the EU with it's own nuclear deterrent.  Thats a lot of political and diplomatic ground to cover but after this summit its must look like a better bet for the buck with an erratic aggrieved US President presiding over NATO. A lot depends on the outcome of the French Presidential Election next month (Merkel would have to come to an agreement with nuclear armed France to "subcontract" a nuclear umbrella for the EU AND security post Brexit England's tacit connivance as well) as well as German's Federal Elections this Fall.  Hell Paris and Berlin could be in the hands of angry populist irredentists come the fall....or a collection of deeply offended integrationists with aspirations of nuclear independence....

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