German Chancellor Merkel says Europe can no longer count on the US

World Today

Donald Trump,Shinzo Abe,Jean-Claude Junker,Paolo Gentiloni,Justin TrudeauG7 leaders, from left, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Junker, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Donald Trump, and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, pose for a family photo at the Ancient Greek Theater of Taormina, Friday, May 26, 2017, in Taormina, Italy. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

In the aftermath of the G-7 Summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel says Europe can no longer count on the United States.

At an election rally, Merkel told supporters that Germany and Europe must create their own destiny. But in the United States, President Donald Trump hailed his first foreign trip as a big success. Now, he returns to the domestic challenges he left behind.

CGTN’s Nathan King reports.

Donald Trump is back in the White House and is tweeting again. Early Sunday he wrote:

“Just returned from Europe. Trip was a great success for America. Hard work but big results!”

That’s not the view of the leader of Europe’s largest nation. Angela Merkel, who expressed frustration during the G7 summit over the possible withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Climate agreement, has now told a political rally that she thinks Germany and Europe can no longer count on the U.S.

“The times when we could completely count on others, they are over to a certain extent. I have experienced this in the last few days. And that is why I can only say that we Europeans must really take our fate into our own hands,” German Chancellor Merkel said.

While he was attending the G7 meetings in Italy, Trump criticized German car sales to the U.S., failed to agree with his counterparts on refugee policy or climate change, and announced upon his return that he will make a decision on whether to pull out of the Paris Climate agreement this week.

On the domestic front, his presidency is facing yet more allegations.

Now reports in U.S. media say his son in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner, during the transition, suggested setting up a back-channel with Russia to bypass U.S. government surveillance. There are also fresh allegations that he failed to disclose even more meetings with Russian officials on his security clearance application. That could be a big legal problem for Kushner who has been reportedly labelled a person of interest in the FBI investigation into possible Russian collusion with the Trump campaign.

The White House has not fully denied the allegations. Trump, however, is indicating allegations are false – tweeting out Sunday morning:

“Whenever you see the words ‘sources say’ in the fake news media, and they don’t mention names?
“…it is very possible that those sources don’t exist but are made up by fake news writers. #FakeNews is the enemy!”

But the investigations continue. Now, a special counsel has been appointed to look into possible criminal wrongdoing in relation to Russian attempts to affect the 2016 U.S. presidential election. There are at least three other investigations looking into several people who worked closely with Donald Trump.

Fake news or not, these investigations are very real.