From Candidate to President: Coverage of Donald Trump in Germany

The diplomatic relations between United States of America and Germany go back more than two hundred years, when the then Kingdom of Prussia and United States of America came to an agreement over trade and peace on September 18th, 1785. Subsequently, after the formation of unified German empire in 1871, the two nations have had a mixed relationship, being on opposite sides in both world wars but maintaining trade and exchange of knowledge, technology, students and goodwill before and after the world wars. In recent history, after the reunification of Germany in 1990, United States of America has been one of the closest ally of Germany. However, this transatlantic relationship threatened to change after Donald Trump announced his candidancy for 2016 US presidential elections. The full exchange of his statements with German chancellor Angela Merkel will be presented later in this chapter, but as early as October 2015, Donald Trump had started attacking German leader. His full quote of "I always thought Merkel was this great leader. What she's done in Germany is insane" was followed by comparing German chancellor to his opponent Hillary Clinton.