Germans Think Trump Is Bigger Threat Than Putin, Korea’s Kim, China’s Xi

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses media representatives at a press conference d
JOHN THYS/AFP via Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

A plurality of people in Germany believe that the President of the United States, Donald Trump, is the biggest threat to world peace.

A recent poll found that forty-one per cent of Germans think President Trump is more dangerous than Russian president Vladimir Putin, or Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping, who lead the communist regimes of North Korea and the People’s Republic of China.

Seventeen per cent said that the North Korean dictator was the biggest threat, followed by Russian President Vladimir and the Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei who both tied at eight per cent.

The President of China, Xi Jinping, was considered the least threatening with just 7 per cent listing the Chinese dictator as their biggest concern, despite his government’s nuclear arsenal and penchant for mass incrceration of dissidents and troublesome minorities.

The YouGov poll commissioned by the German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) surveyed 2,024 people in Germany between December 16th and December 18th.

A similar poll conducted last year in Germany, omitting Khamenei and Xi, found that 48 per cent listed Trump as their biggest concern.

Tensions between the United States and Germany have been on the rise after Donald Trump has pressed Germany and other NATO members to fulfil their military spending obligations, which many including Germany have failed to do.

Speaking at the NATO summit in July of 2018, President Trump criticised Germany for signing a massive gas deal with Russia, while demanding the United States protect Germany from Russian aggression.

“It is very sad when Germany makes a massive oil and gas deal with Russia, where we’re supposed to be guarding against Russia, and Germany goes and pays out billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia. We’re protecting Germany, we’re protecting France, we’re protecting all of these countries”, President Trump said.

Currently, only the United States, Greece, Estonia, the United Kingdom, Romania, Poland, and Latvia are meeting their NATO spending obligations, which require members to spend at least two per cent of GDP on defence spending.

Germany is only spending 1.36 per cent of its GDP on defence, well below its NATO obligations, despite having the largest economy in Europe.

Follow Kurt on Twitter @KurtZindulka

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