--- title: Donald Trump Will Ask Angela Merkel for Advice on Russia description: President Trump will seek the advice of German Chancellor Angela Merkel on how to approach Russian President Vladimir Putin. canonical: https://time.com/4698352/donald-trump-angela-merkel-vladimir-putin/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-10T19:00:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:47:19.605Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Once Said Angela Merkel Was 'Ruining Germany.' Now He Wants Her Advice og:description: "The president is impressed with Chancellor Merkel’s leadership." og:url: https://time.com/4698352/donald-trump-angela-merkel-vladimir-putin/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6fddce21abfd7ae6/6988bb02e20a87350ea942c0/gettyimages-642552548.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3255 og:image:height: 1831 og:image:alt: 53rd Munich Security Conference og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Once Said Angela Merkel Was 'Ruining Germany.' Now He Wants Her Advice twitter:description: "The president is impressed with Chancellor Merkel’s leadership." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6fddce21abfd7ae6/6988bb02e20a87350ea942c0/gettyimages-642552548.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Once Said Angela Merkel Was 'Ruining Germany.' 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Mar 10, 2017 7:00 PM UTC  German Chancellor Angela Merkel talks at the 53rd Munich Security Conference (MSC) at Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich, Germany, on Feb. 18, 2017. German Chancellor Angela Merkel talks at the 53rd Munich Security Conference (MSC) at Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich, Germany, on Feb. 18, 2017. Andreas Gebert—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Mar 10, 2017 7:00 PM UTC President Trump will seek the advice of [German Chancellor Angela Merkel](http://time.com/4598467/angela-merkel-donald-trump-liberal-democracy/) on how to approach Russian [President Vladimir Putin](http://time.com/4690669/donald-trump-chuck-schumer-russia-tweets/), Administration officials said Friday. Merkel’s March 14 visit to the White House—the first meeting for Trump and the longtime German leader—is set to be closely scrutinized amid disagreements on a range of policy issues, from Russia policy to refugees. Trump’s hasn’t been shy about sharing his opinion of Merkel, who support for accepting Syrian refugees he called [“insane,”](http://time.com/4453084/donald-trump-angela-merkel-germany-immigration/) and suggested in a tweet she was [“ruining Germany.” ](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/674587800835092480?lang=en) Those comments followed Trump [telling TIME](http://time.com/4453084/donald-trump-angela-merkel-germany-immigration/) Merkel was “probably the greatest leader in the world today.” White House officials said Trump’s initial opinion of Putin is operative. “The president is impressed with Chancellor Merkel’s leadership,” an Administration official said Friday “The President will be very interested in hearing the chancellor’s views on her experience interacting with Putin,” the official added, noting she has been negotiating with him for more than a decade. “He’s going to be very interested in hearing her insights on what it’s like to deal with Putin, to deal with the Russians.” An official said that Trump has not yet decided on whether to continue to pursue the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP). As a candidate Trump promised to do away with multilateral trade deals, and he withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership as one of his first acts in office. But the official suggested that T-TIP could be considered as a two-party deal because of the European Union’s structure. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4698352/donald-trump-angela-merkel-vladimir-putin/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4698352/donald-trump-angela-merkel-vladimir-putin/"},"headline":"President Trump Once Said Angela Merkel Was 'Ruining Germany.' 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