Trump Undermines Merkel as She Tries to Stand Up to Putin
- Pressure mounts in Berlin for tougher stance against Kremlin
- The U.S. is set to withdraw almost 10,000 troops from Germany
German Chancellor Angela Merkel greets Russian President Vladimir Putin as he arrives for an international summit on securing peace in Libya on Jan. 19, 2020 in Berlin.
Photographer: Adam Berry/Getty Images EuropeThis article is for subscribers only.
The reverberations from Donald Trump’s latest broadside against Germany have reached all the way to Moscow.
The president’s decision to withdraw more than a quarter of the U.S. troops stationed in her country leaves Chancellor Angela Merkel exposed at a moment when she’s facing growing pressure to get tough with Vladimir Putin and was welcomed in the Russian capital.