when trump and simply didn't react as merkel asked him to shake hands thank you. german chancellor i'm going to cause reputation as the global leader who keeps the world strong men on the straight and narrow simply doesn't seem to apply to this u.s. president who insists on setting the pace and direction of global politics. observers say trump's erratic decision making challenges merkel's political style to confront even partners with very harsh positions to threaten and then to undo and sort of go back into a more cooperative mood and i would say he has kept european partners pretty much on their toes trump upstaged his nato allies by talking about money rather than values twenty three of the twenty eight member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they're supposed to be paying for their defense.