Less than 24 hours after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States in November 2024, the German state-owned news service Deutsche Welle published an article with the headline 'Trump's election victory is a nightmare for Germany.' A few hours later, Germany's chancellor, Olaf Scholz, announced that his three-party political coalition had collapsed. Disagreements about how to help strengthen Germany's weak economy were a major factor, but Scholz mentioned that the U.S. election outcome also fueled the coalition breaking up. But this might change with Trump returning to office. As Angela Merkel, the longtime former chancellor of Germany, said in November 2024, the looming second Trump presidency 'is a challenge to the world, especially for multilateralism.' Indeed, Trump's U.S.-centric approach to international affairs runs counter to multilateralism, which is the idea that different countries working together helps everyone involved. The German concerns include Trump...
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