New Biden Memoir Excerpt: Merkel Privately Called Trump “Emotional” and Wondered Why He Was Fascinated by Putin and Other Autocrats
In newly released excerpts from his memoir Promise Me, America, due out on November 17, former President Joe Biden writes that former German Chancellor Angela Merkel privately described Donald Trump as “emotional,” saying he appeared to be guided by his moods rather than by facts, and that she wondered at his fascination with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other politicians with autocratic traits.
Biden writes that Merkel spoke candidly in their conversations after he took office in 2021 about her difficult dealings with Trump after he entered the White House in January 2017. She recalled that Trump refused to shake her hand during her March 2017 White House visit: as photographers urged a handshake, she turned to him and asked, “Do you want to have a handshake?” and he remained seated with his hands clasped.
“She also wondered why he was 'fascinated' by Vladimir Putin and other politicians 'with autocratic and dictatorial traits,'” Biden writes. “That was a mystery I could not unravel.” The excerpts, first shared with Newsweek, are the latest layer of the memoir's rolling release, following earlier excerpts on his rift and reconciliation with Nancy Pelosi and the letter Trump left him in 2021.
Biden writes that repairing relations with traditional U.S. allies was one of his first tasks in office. In her own 2024 memoir, Freedom, Merkel recalled initially approaching Trump as though he were “someone completely normal,” and later feeling that their interactions were a competition: you or me.
(Source: Newsweek)
Source: Newsweek
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：拜登与德国总理默克尔在白宫椭圆形办公室会面资料图。照片：美国总统办公室，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: File photo of Joe Biden meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the Oval Office. Photo by the Office of the President of the United States, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
