Scholz replies Tech billionaire, Elon Musk for calling him a fool, hopeful on Trump

 

BERLIN – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz seems unfazed about the prospect of future cooperation with US President-elect Donald Trump, saying you have to take political situations as they come.

“My principle is always, if I may say so casually: You dance with those who are in the room. And that also applies to the future president of the USA,” Scholz told a Sunday evening talk show on public broadcaster ARD.

“I’m never naive, but I’m also a bit unflustered,” he said.
During his first term as US president, Trump had heavily criticized Germany for what he deemed to be insufficient military spending, Germany’s trade surplus, and the German-Russian gas pipeline Nord Stream 2.

Scholz pointed out that Germany is now spending 2% of its gross national product on defence, in line with NATO guidelines.

The chancellor also made it clear that he expects Trump, who won the US election and is due to return to the White House in January, to adhere to the commitment made by outgoing President Joe Biden to station US intermediate-range missiles in Germany.

“This is an agreement we have made with the US. It is in our mutual interest. So I want to accept it,” Scholz said.

Scholz also responded in the interview to the recent criticism from Trump supporter and tech billionaire Elon Musk regarding the breakdown of the centre-left coalition in Germany.

Musk had written in German on the online platform X, which Musk owns: “Olaf is a fool.” When asked if this bothered him, Scholz replied, “It honours me.”

“I don’t comment on tech billionaires,” the chancellor said. “He is not a head of state, even if one sometimes gets the impression that some tech corporations are more powerful than states.”