Germans overwhelmingly see the US as an unreliable partner, according to results of a poll released by the public broadcaster ZDF. Only 14 percent of respondents consider the US to be a trustworthy diplomatic partner.
Image: picture-alliance/R. Peters
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Eighty-two percent of Germans believe that the country cannot count on President Donald Trump's United States as a reliable partner in international relations, according to the Politbarometer survey conducted for the public broadcaster ZDF.
Fourteen percent of respondents believe that Trump's US remains a reliable partner even as the president has pulled the country out of established international accords in the 16 months of his term to date. Just 4 percent said "I don't know" when the question was posed to them.
Sixty-five percent of respondents said parties should keep the international nuclear deal with Iran alive after Trump unilaterally withdrew the US earlier this month, while 28 percent expressed skepticism about the accord.
Donald Trump on Germany: Top quotes
The US president has offered praise and dished out criticism of Germany. Whether describing the chancellor as "the greatest" or claiming Berlin owes "vast sums of money" to the US, here are his most memorable quotes.
Image: picture-alliance/NurPhoto/C. May
The good, the bad and the ugly
US President Donald Trump has offered both candid praise and unabashed criticism of Germany and its policies. From calling German Chancellor Angela Merkel "possibly the greatest world leader" to describing her open-door refugee policy as a "catastrophic mistake," here are his most memorable quotes regarding Germany.
Image: picture-alliance/NurPhoto/C. May
'Greatest'
"Germany's like sitting back silent, collecting money and making a fortune with probably the greatest leader in the world today, Merkel," Trump said in a 2015 interview with US news magazine Time.
Image: Picture alliance/AP Photo/M. Schreiber
'Very bad'
"The Germans are bad, very bad ... Look at the millions of cars they sell in the US. Terrible. We'll stop that," Trump said during a NATO leaders summit, according to German news magazine Der Spiegel, which cited sources at the alliance's meeting.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/AP/E. Vucci
'Something in common'
"As far as wiretapping, I guess, by - you know - [the Obama] administration, at least we have something in common, perhaps," Trump said in March during a press conference with Merkel. He was referring to his unproven allegations that ex-President Barack Obama tapped his phone. There was widespread anger in Germany in 2013 when it was revealed the US National Security Agency tapped Merkel's phone.
Image: Picture alliance/R. Sachs/CNP
'Illegals'
"I think she made one very catastrophic mistake and that was taking all of these illegals (sic), you know taking all of the people from wherever they come from," Trump said in a joint interview published by German daily Bild and British newspaper The Times, referring to Merkel's open-door policy for refugees fleeing war and persecution.
Image: Getty Images/S. Gallup
'Germany owes vast sums of money'
"Despite what you have heard from the fake news, I had a great meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Nevertheless, Germany owes vast sums of money to NATO and the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany," Trump said in a two-tweet statement after meeting with Merkel for the first time in March 2017.
Image: Picture alliance/dpa/L. Mirgeler
'Turning their backs'
"The people of Germany are turning against their leadership as migration is rocking the already tenuous Berlin coalition," Trump tweeted in the midst of a row within the German goverment. He went on to claim that: "Crime in Germany is way up. Big mistake made all over Europe in allowing millions of people in who have so strongly and violently changed their culture!"
Image: AFP/Getty Images/L. Marin
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Ninety-four percent of respondents said the European Union would require close internal cooperation in international affairs now that the US has turned rogue. However, a mere 20 percent believe that the bloc could successfully present anything with the appearance of a united front, while 26 percent foresee looser cooperation and 51 percent say there is unlikely to be any change.
Whom to trust?
Thirty-six percent of respondents see a strong ally in Russia, though 58 percent consider the Kremlin an unreliable partner for Germany in matters of foreign affairs. Respondents were split on China: 43 percent think the country could serve a reliable partner, and 43 percent do not.
Followers of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) expressed the most trust in Russia: 61 percent said the Kremlin was their country's best bet abroad. At more or less the opposite end of Germany's mainstream political spectrum, 45 percent of supporters of the Left party said the country could count on Russia. More skeptical were the Greens, 74 percent of whom do not believe that Russia is a reliable partner for Germany, followed by the Social Democrats (65 percent), Christian Democrats (61 percent) and Free Democrats (58 percent).
Overall, 45 percent of respondents believe that Germany should maintain sanctions on Russia for its support of separatists in Ukraine's civil war and occupation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014; 36 percent — including 71 percent of AfD supporters and 52 percent of the Left's — believe that measures should be relaxed. Just 14 percent of survey respondents would like to see the sanctions increased.
The Forschungsgruppe Wahlen polled 1,200 randomly selected German voters from Tuesday through Thursday.
