Merkel grimaces after Trump says ‘radical Islamic terrorism’ and wiretapping claims
A moment after Trump uttered the words — and Merkel received the translation — she sighed, her face went tight and she appeared to shake her head.
Did the Syrian refugee-loving German Chancellor Angela Merkel grimace after President Trump linked terrorism to radical Islam?
During a joint press conference in the White House today, Trump said, “Our two countries must continue to work together to protect our people from radical Islamic terrorism.”
A moment after Trump uttered the words — and Merkel received the translation — she sighed, her face went tight and she appeared to shake her head.
Following today’s latest developments over Trump’s allegations that the UK’s GCHQ may or may not have helped Obama to wiretap the Trump Tower, an allegation which the infuriated British Spy Agency called “utterly ridiculous” and prompted it to demand an apology from the White House, a German reporter asked Trump for his current opinion on whether Obama had indeed wiretapped Trump. The president’s response: he gestured to Angela Merkel and said “on wiretapping by this past administration, at least we have something in common.”
Merkel’s reaction was similarly amusing: almost as if she had heard for the first time that in 2010, and for years onward, Barack Obama had been wiretapping her and countless other heads of state.
#Merkel appears 2 shake head at #Trump‘s raising of ‘Radical Islamic Terrorism’. pic.twitter.com/xikRcJ8zlg
— Vocal Europe (@thevocaleurope) March 17, 2022
For those unsure what the exchange was about, we suggest you read the Telegraph’s “Barack Obama ‘approved tapping Angela Merkel’s phone 3 years ago’… President Barack Obama was told about monitoring of German Chancellor in 2010 and allowed it to continue, says German newspaper.”
And incidentally, in yet another change in the official narrative, after both Sky News and the Telegraph reported earlier today that the White House had apologized to Britain over the accusation that its spy agency had helped Obama spy on Trump, the NYT reported that the White House has said there was no apology from either Spicer or McMaster, and that instead the Administration defended Spicer’s mention of the wiretapping story.
Finally, as Axios adds, after Trump and Merkel left the stage reporters again asked Sean Spicer whether he apologized for repeating an anonymously sourced Fox News claim that British intelligence helped in wiretapping Trump Tower. His response: “I don’t think we regret anything.“
