Leaked Diplomat Cable Reveals German Fears, Warnings Over Donald Trump

Sunday's leak of a cable from Berlin's ambassador to the United States worrying about Donald Trump's "plans for revenge" has sent German diplomacy in a spin ahead of the Republican's return to power.

According to a confidential cable revealed on Sunday by the German daily Bild, Berlin's envoy Andreas Michaelis denounced Trump's planned "strategy of maximal disruption" to "redefine the constitutional order". He warned it could weaken democracy in the United States.

With Michaelis due to represent the German government at Trump's inauguration Monday, the leak of the cable could not have come at a worse time for Berlin.

In the cable, reportedly sent to the foreign ministry last Tuesday, the envoy said he saw the US President-elect as a man driven by "desire for vengeance".

Trump aims to "maximally concentrate powers" in the presidency, to the detriment of Congress and the states, said Michaelis. That would "largely sap" the United States's fundamental democratic principles, according to the cable quoted by Bild.

Questioned about the cable, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock confirmed its existence. 

"Of course the embassies write reports, that's their mission, especially during changes of government for us to know what to expect...," Baerbock told the ZDF television channel.

"And the American president has already announced what he intends to do... and of course we have to prepare for that."

Contacted earlier by AFP, the German foreign ministry said it does not comment on "internal documents, analyses and embassy reports" in principle.

'Nonsense'

Conservative Friedrich Merz, favourite to win election to the chancellery in late February's polls, was scathing about leak.

Addressing an electoral meeting, he blasted the cable as "full of all kinds of criticism and nonsense about the American president-elect. "The American president and his government does not need Germany to point the finger at them," he added.

Merz has presented himself as a man better placed to negotiate with the incoming US administration.

In contrast, the incumbent Chancellor, Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, has been more critical -- especially of Trump's ally tech billionaire Elon Musk and his interventions in Germany's election in favour of the far-right AfD.

And given Trump's frequent trumpeting of the threat of tariffs, Germany fears it could be on the front line of any US-EU trade war.

Any hiked levies on German exports would hit Berlin at a time when Europe's largest economy is already stuttering.

In another interview published Saturday in Bild, Lars Klingbeil, co-leader of Scholz's SPD party, said that while Berlin "needs to work well with each American administration, the first signs that we have had have not been encouraging.

"We will reach out our hand to Donald Trump", he was quoted as saying, but "we must be clear that if he refuses it, we will have to be strong and defend our interests".

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)