President Trump wants to ask Angela Merkel for advice about Putin

(Image credit: Carl Court/Getty Images)

published 10 March 2017

President Trump is set to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel next week, in the two leaders' first face-to-face meeting since Trump took office. Trump and Merkel will sit down Tuesday at the White House and hold a joint press conference after their discussion.

Trump has been "impressed by Merkel's leadership," U.S. officials told Reuters, and wants her advice about one thing in particular: how to handle Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump plans to ask Merkel about "her experience interacting with Putin," a U.S. official told Reuters. "He's going to be very interested in hearing her insights on what it's like to deal with the Russians."

Trump and Merkel have at times been on opposing ends of policy preference; notably, Merkel welcomed hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees to Germany while Trump has issued two executive orders aimed at limiting immigration to the United States and temporarily suspending the Syrian refugee program. Merkel also serves as the de facto president of the European Union, and the two are expected to discuss the European alliance as well as defense spending for NATO allies and the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.