Donald Trump Keeps Fighting
America is lurching from one crisis to the next. In an interview with Deutschlandfunk, the Director of GMF’s Berlin office Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff discussed the social and political climate in America under President Trump.
American society is changing. “Americans are debating social issues that were hardly debatable before,” said Kleine-Brockhoff. As a very recent example, Kleine-Brockhoff cites the use of the military against protestors of the “Black Lives Matter” movement in Portland.
The much-discussed division of American society has increased under Trump, says Kleine-Brockhoff. “This is the business model of populists all around the world. They divide rather than unite to put themselves in a better position, and this is the strategy with which Trump wants to win the election,” he says. On transatlantic relations, Kleine-Brockhoff notes that “Germany’s relations with the U.S. are virtually frozen. We have not taken any major initiatives with the U.S. and have been waiting until Trump’s term ends.” Eventually, Germany will take up the good relationship with the United States from where it was in the past, Kleine-Brockhoff believes.
Photo Credit: Michael Candelori / Shutterstock