Summary
In her memoir Freedom, Angela Merkel reflects on her misjudgment of Donald Trump, initially treating him as “completely normal” before realizing his emotional nature and authoritarian inclinations.
She recounts his attempts to humiliate her, his zero-sum worldview, and fascination with autocratic leaders like Vladimir Putin.
Merkel also critiques Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and his hostility toward Germany.
Addressing her legacy, she discusses tensions with Putin over NATO and acknowledges criticism of her reliance on Russian gas and liberal refugee policies.
Let’s be fair: “I was wrong about the bad nature of somebody else” is pretty much the lowest, mildest, weakest possible form of self-criticism there is, to the point that it’s quite common for posh manipulator types to use “I was wrong about your ,<proceeds to criticized the other person>” format of discourse to criticize others.