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When German and American political leaders strongly disagree about a crucial issue in public it normally sounds something like this.

"This country under my leadership is not available for adventure," German Chancellor Gerhard Schrder said at a campaign event of his Social Democratic Party in the summer of 2002. He was of course referring to the potential US invasion of Iraq which ultimately began under President George W. Bush in 2003. Schroeder's public rebuke is said to not only have seriously irked Bush, but also to have damaged their personal relationship beyond repair.

Read: Trump and Merkel to talks NATO, Ukraine and climate change

"I am not convinced, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer famously told US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at the Munich Security Conference in February 2003, one month before the American invasion of Iraq would begin.

Fischer openly rebuking the case for war made by Rumsfeld in front of a slew of global luminaries was highly unusual in the context of the traditionally close and at least publicly harmonious relationship between leaders of both countries.

Libya, Cuba and Germany

"I believe Libya, Cuba and Germany are ones that have indicated they won't help in any respect," Pentagon chief Rumsfeld, also not once to mince words, said about Germanyin February 2003, incensing Berlin by likening the country's stance vis-a-vis the Iraq invasion to that of two nations traditionally hostile towards the US.

After his first travel ban was slapped down by several courts, Trump issued a revised order banning travel from six Muslim-majority countries. This time, Trump dropped Iraq from a list that included seven blacklisted countries first time around. The new order temporarily suspended the entire US refugee program, but exempted those with visas and who had already been formally accepted as refugees.

From February and into March, President Trump further advanced his political objectives through a combination of executive orders, memoranda, memos, and the signing of bills into law. He also used his executive authority to undo guidelines issued under the Obama administration.

In February, Trump signed 11 new executive orders (broad ranging directives that help the executive branch manage federal government operations) and issued one memorandum (a more direct executive action aimed at a specific agency) targeting the Department of Labor. The US President also signed five bills sent to his Oval Office desk by Congress, which will now become law.

President Trump's first February executive order established "core principles" for regulating the financial system and requires the Treasury Department to review and report on key provisions of the Dodd-Frank financial reform act. Republicans had criticized the act, which was implemented in the aftermath of the Great Recession, for strangling financial flexibility and inhibiting economic growth.

Through a series of three executive orders, Trump followed up on his campaign promise to crack down on what he had described as rampant crime in the US. He ordered Attorney General Jeff Sessions to create a Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety and heralded stronger combating of transnational crime. Trump also called for new federal crime criteria to prevent violence against police.

On February 9, Trump signed Executive Order 13775 reversing changes to the Justice Department's line of succession that President Obama had made mere days before leaving office. Trump had already side-stepped Obama's order when he removed and replaced acting Attorney General Sally Yates after she had refused to defend Trump's travel ban.

Executive Order 13777, signed February 24, builds off of his previous January 30 order prioritizing massive deregulation across the federal government. The February order introduces Regulatory Reform Officers into federal agencies and creates reform task forces. Together, these bodies will advise on the "repeal, replacement or modification" of regulations perceived as prohibitive or ineffective.

Trump began undoing environmental protections on two fronts. Firstly, he issued an executive order directing the Environmental Protection Agency to review a rule that empowers the federal government to protect waterways. Though unlikely to have immediate effects, the order could eventually weaken the 1972 Clean Water Act. Trump also signed a bill invalidating an Obama-era stream protection rule.

Surronded in the Oval Office by leaders from historically black educational institutions, Trump signed Executive Order 13779 in order to "promote excellence and innovation" at HBCUs. Primary goals including increasing private-sector participation in the institutions, broadly improving HBCUs capabilities, improving the relationships between HBCUs and the federal government.

In a two-page letter to US public schoos, the Trump administration revoked a controversial Obama-era federal directive allowing transgender students to use the bathroom of their choosing. The White House jusitified the action through a pending court case, despite the guidelines already being on hold. The letter did not lay out new guidelines, meaning states can choose their policies.

On February 28 Trump signed a measure to block an Obama-era regulation that would have prevented about 75,000 people with mental disorders from purchasing firearms. In an effort to curb gun violence, the Obama administration asked the Social Security Administration to disclose information about people with certain mental illnesses to the gun background system.

In the third week of February the Department of Homeland Security released Trump's plans to aggressively enforce deportation policies regardless of the severity of an immigrant's criminal history. The guidelines kicked off a nationwide crackdown on undocumented immigrants.

Trump signed two bills promoting women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). One required NASA to encourage young women to study STEM fields and pursue careers that will help advance science and space exploration. The second required the National Science Foundation to encourage its entrepreneurial programs to recruit and support women to work in the commercial world.

Author: Cristina Burack

Against that historical backdrop the number and ferocity of Donald Trump's unprovoked verbal attacks during the presidential campaign against Chancellor Merkel were truly unprecedented.

"I always thought Merkel was, like, this great leader," he said in an interview in October 2015 about her decision to allow more than a million refugees into the country. "What she's done in Germany is insane," he added and predicted: "They're going to have riots in Germany."

Ruining Germany

Two months later, after Time magazine made Merkel its person of the year Trump took to Twitter to declare, that the outlet picked the person "who is ruining Germany".

In March 2016, referring to the Cologne New Year's Eve assaultson hundreds of women, Trump during a rally in Iowa again predicted unrest in Germany and lashed out against Merkel. "The German people are going to riot. The German people are going to end up overthrowing this woman [Angela Merkel]. I don't know what the hell she is thinking."

In June last year during remarks about Brexit, Trump mused about Germans emigrating: "These are people that were very proud Germans that were beyond belief, they thought the greatest that there ever was and now they're talking about leaving Germany."

But then in September 2016 after having repeatedly savaged Merkel for months, Trump suddenly heaped praise on the Chancellor, albeit with some key qualifiers.

A Merkel person

"Well, I think Merkel is a really great world leader," he said in an interview. "But I was very disappointed that, when she, this move with the whole thing on immigration, I think it's a big problem and really, you know, to look at what she's done in the last year and a half.I was always a Merkel person.I thought really fantastic. But I think she made a very tragic mistake a year and a half ago."

Unlike, some of her cabinet members, Merkel kept her cool and did not directly counter Trump's criticism during the presidential election campaign.

Instead, Merkel waited until after his election to deliver a message to the new president.

Chancellor Merkel had a noteworthy congratulatory message for President-elect Trump

Public lecture

In a remarkable statement from the chancellery congratulating him on his victory she went on to offer Trump close cooperation based on shared values which she then explicitly listed one by one: "democracy, freedom, the respect for the law and the dignity of human beings, independent of their origin, skin color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or political position".

While this may seem tame in comparison to Trump's attacks on her, for a German Chancellor to not just offer cooperation under specified terms to a US president, but to do it in way that could be perceived as lecturing him on Western values, was as stark a rebuke of an incoming US president as could be expected of Merkel or any German chancellor.

No screaming

And Merkel did not stop there,but since also came out strongly against President Trump's travel ban against several predominantly Muslim nations. "The necessary and decisive battle against terrorism does not in any way justify putting groups of certain people under general suspicion, in this case people of Muslim belief or of a certain origin,"she said in January in Berlin.

Keeping theirprior rhetorical struggle in mind, it seems fair to describe the first Trump-Merkel meeting as potentially loaded. It also makes clear why an experienced US foreign policy analyst was only half-joking when he recently commented that he considered italready a success if Trump behaved himself and the get-together ended without screaming.

Link:
Things Donald Trump said about Angela Merkel and vice versa - Deutsche Welle