Trump welcomes Angela Merkel, congrats on 4th term election victory. Please to have Richard Grinnell confirmed, ambassador to Germany.
Says confirmation was long overdue, It will be special. DEMS have treated the WH unfairly, and they have to move it along. US and Germany have advanced peace, prosperity and freedom.
Congrats to Korea on its historic summit. Will be meeting with Kim Jong in the coming weeks. Thanks to Germany for helping the campaign of maximum pressure. Let's see what happens. We seek peace and harmony for Korea and for the people of the world. will not repeat the mistake of past administrations. Max pressure until denuclearization.
Today we discussed Iran, which fuels violence and bloodshed across the Mideast, and must end proliferation and support of terrorism. wherever there is a problem, Iran is right there.
Calls for improved cost/burden sharing by EU and Mideast contries. In this age of international crimes, it is necessary to have border security and control.
Talks of trade deficiet with EU, 100 bilion a year, oncluding 50 billion in autos and auto parts, will work with Merkel to fix these trade imbalances. WTO has not treated the US well. Invokes a notion of shared civilization.
Merkel's turn ...
Germany will earmark 1.3% of GDP to defense, which is still short of the target. Germany wants fair trade too, WTO, but does acknowledge that WTO has not always been able to bring about agreements, so maybe we work outside of WTO with the US, as we have with other countries. We have already been able to reduce the trade surplus. US tax structure has made US a good palce to do business. Workers in US have good working conditions.
Generally, Germany and US are linked many ways, culture, US troops making ties in Germany, delighter to finally have an ambassador.
Hand shake.
Questions.
In the Oval Office you said NK played US like a fiddle, but that won;t happen to us. Do you have to be the closer in that deal, or will you share with people in the region? have you spoken with Kim Jong Un? (do not want to comment on that). Makes fun of the people who have failed in the last 25 years trying to tell Trump how to make a deal with NK. Obama said NK would be my biggest problem. I wish this problem had been handled sometime in the last 25 years, it should not have been left for now.