Trump was unpopular in Germany. For Merkel to distance herself from his administration made electoral sense. At the same time, Merkel’s negative view of Trump might be explained by other factors. In 2016 the BND, Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, supplied material to the Obama administration concerning contacts between the Trump team and Russians. The BND reported directly to Merkel’s office. It had inside knowledge of Trump’s business transactions, many of them conducted via German banks. One former senior director on the U.S. National Security Council speculated: “Merkel knows how bad
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