Trump will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel for just 20 minutes
ANGELA Merkel will hardly be able to enjoy a cup of tea, if she wishes, when she meets with US President Donald Trump at the White House later today.
Trump, who has at times been a fierce critic of Chancellor Merkel, will meet with her for just 20 minutes when they get together for the second time following their controversial talks in March last year.
The brief visit and meeting is in stark contrast to the state visit French President Emmanuel Macron has just enjoyed to the US.
The meeting is even shorter than President Trump and Prime Minister Turnbull’s terse phone call in January 2017, one the Republican hung up on after 24 minutes.
According to CNN, Trump and Merkel will chew the fat for just 20 minutes in the Oval Office, before a 90 minute lunch and a 30 minute press conference.
The pair met for two approximately one hour meetings last year.
It gives Merkel precious little time to build on Macron’s intentions to encourage the USA to re-engage with Europe.
Prime Minister Turnbull was afforded a more expansive second meeting with Trump in February when the pair came together with a group of Australia’s business leaders and Turnbull stayed at the official White House guesthouse for three nights.
The meeting was attended by four of Australia’s premiers, two chief ministers and a delegation of business executives that included Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, Anthony Pratt and Kerry Stokes.
TRUMP FINALLY MOVES ON BERLIN POST
Ahead of his meeting with Merkel, President Trump finally announced he had filled the top US diplomatic post in Germany.
After months of delay, the US Senate on Thursday confirmed Richard Grenell as ambassador to Germany, elevating an ally to President Trump to a top diplomatic post.
Lawmakers voted 56 to 42 to approve Grenell, a former US spokesman at the United Nations and a longtime adviser for Republican political candidates.
Democrats had held up Grenell’s nomination, which Trump had announced back in September.
“The extreme partisanship displayed toward Mr Grenell, a highly qualified nominee from President Trump, will be remembered,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said in a statement.
Merkel is expected to talk tough with Trump on transatlantic trade disputes and the Iran nuclear deal and having the top US diplomatic post in Berlin empty a full 15 months into Trump’s administration would have been an embarrassment.
Grenell is now among the most high-profile gay members of Trump’s administration. In 2012 he worked for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, becoming the first openly gay spokesman for a Republican presidential candidate.
He was pressured to resign that post by social conservatives.
GERMANY UPSET AT TRUMP’S NON-HANDSHAKE
Previous meetings between President Trump and Chancellor Merkel have been anything but smooth.
Their first meeting in March last year was dominated by an awkward non-handshake.
But Trump’s press secretary had a simple explanation for why he rebuffed Merkel’s request for a handshake in the White House.
“I don’t believe he heard the request,” Mr Trump’s then spokesman Sean Spicer told German weekly Der Spiegel.
But the Germans aren’t buying it.
The country’s top-selling Bild newspaper said that was “improbable”, saying that throughout the meeting, Mr Trump did not once look Ms Merkel in the eye.
The visit between the world leaders began cordially enough, with the pair shaking hands at the White House entrance.
But Ms Merkel’s suggestion of another handshake in the Oval Office went unheard or ignored by Mr Trump — an awkward moment in what are usually highly scripted occasions.
Trump had previously put Merkel off-side by adversely describing Hillary Clinton as “America’s Angela Merkel” during the 2016 Presidential race.
He also suggested that Germany would “overthrow” her due to her immigration policies.
