Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel described Donald Trump as "fascinated by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin" and "by other authoritarian leaders," with a "winner-or-loser mentality" in excerpts from her new memoir published by Die Zeit on Nov. 21.
Trump's relationship with Putin is coming into the spotlight as the former U.S. president is set to return to the White House in January, with far-ranging implications for Russia's war in Ukraine.
"(Trump) saw everything from the point of view of a property developer, which is what he was before he came into politics. Every plot of land could only be sold once, and if he didn't get it, someone else would. That's how he saw the world," writes the former German politician in the book titled "Freedom: Memories 1954-2021."
"Donald Trump asked me a series of questions, including about my East German origins and my relationship with Putin," she said.
"He was clearly fascinated by the Russian president."
These assertions seem to align with what the U.S. president-elect, who had already sat in the Oval Office between 2017 and 2021, has shown so far. At the Helsinki summit in 2018, Trump went so far as to say publicly that he was prepared to trust the word of this dictator over his own intelligence services.
During his time out of office, after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Trump again praised Putin for his audacity, and he told a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, that "Putin is pretty smart," calling him a "genius" and "savvy," as reported by Bloomberg.
Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward reported that Trump spoke to Putin "as many as seven times" after he left the presidency and that at one point in 2024, Trump told a senior aide to leave the room at his mansion in Mar-a-Lago so "he could have what he said was a private phone call" with the Russian leader.
Trump also said he could end the war in a day, something widely taken to mean he would force President Volodymyr Zelensky to make painful territorial concessions.
Similarly, Putin has made positive comments about Trump recently.
Commenting on the attempted assassination of Trump while he was speaking at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July, Reuters reported Putin saying: "He behaved, in my opinion, in a very correct way, courageously, like a real man."
After his election, the Washington Post reported on Nov. 10 that Trump had a direct phone call with Putin, in which Trump allegedly advised Putin not to escalate the situation in Ukraine. The Kremlin denied that the call ever took place.
On Nov. 20, Reuters reported that Putin was willing to discuss a ceasefire in Ukraine with Donald Trump, citing five former and current Russian officials.
Trump is a person "under the spell of politicians with autocratic and dictatorial tendencies," Merkel described.
Chris York
