Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Trump imitates Merkel: "How many Chevrolets are there in Munich?"
Astrid Lund - Betty MacDonald fan club organizer: "Dear Donald Trump, I want to buy a Chevrolet and am trying to convince my husband and Angela Merkel to do the same. Please stop crying! I can't watch you being so sad! Everything will be fine!" Let's make Chevrolet great again!-------------------------------------------------------
Berliner Zeitung
Trump imitates Merkel: "How many Chevrolets are there in Munich?"
Katerina Alexandridi • 8 hrs. •
2 min read
Against the backdrop of the ongoing tariff dispute, US President Donald Trump has accused the European Union of not buying American cars. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office after his meeting with El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, Trump also criticized former German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
When asked by a reporter for further details on possible exemptions to special tariffs on electronics products, Trump stated that he was looking for ways to help US automakers, who "need a little more time" before they can move some production to the US. He added that if the US government doesn't act wisely, the country will suffer "very great damage."
He also accused his predecessor, Joe Biden, of causing trillions of dollars in damage to trade with China. "I don't blame China at all, I don't blame President Xi—I like him, he likes me," Trump claimed. The US is now imposing additional tariffs of up to 145 percent on imports from China. Beijing, in turn, has retaliated with retaliatory tariffs of 125 percent on US products.
Referring to Xi Jinping's visit to Vietnam, he said the two countries were trying "to find ways to outsmart the United States," adding that this was precisely the reason the European Union was founded in the first place. He also claimed that the EU had persuaded the US to join NATO because "they don't pay their bills," but that this has changed since his return to the White House.
The European Union now needs to "come to the table," he added, referring to the tariffs. "But they don't buy our food, they don't buy our cars; we have millions of their cars: BMWs, Volkswagens, Mercedes-Benzes, and others. But there are no Chevrolets in Munich," Trump said, repeating a claim he had made in the past.
He then referred to a meeting he once had with former German Chancellor Angela Merkel "when she let millions of people immigrate to Germany, which wasn't so good—we would call them illegal immigrants, but she made them legal." Trump claimed he got along very well with her and said he asked her how many Chevrolets there were in Munich or Frankfurt. Then, pretending to be Merkel, he seemed to imitate her accent and said: "'None, Donald, none.' And I said to her, 'You're right, and yet we're taking millions and millions of cars in. Those days are over,'" the US President concluded.
On Wednesday of last week, Trump reduced high tariffs on a number of countries to ten percent for an initial period of 90 days. For the EU, this means halving the previously announced tariff rate – but still a significantly higher surcharge on exports to the US than before. The EU nevertheless suspended retaliatory tariffs on several US products for 90 days, even though the original reason for these tariffs – US tariffs on steel and aluminum products of 25 percent – remains in place. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen justified the suspension with the prospect of negotiations.
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