Baerbock Looks Past ‘Fake News’ Spat to Potential New Trump Term

(Bloomberg) -- German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock criticized Donald Trump for spreading “fake news” about her country while pledging to have a “trustful relationship” with a second Trump administration if he wins the upcoming elections.

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“We were really a bit astonished that there has been fake news, if not to say a lie, about my country,” Baerbock said in an interview with Bloomberg TV in New York.

Still, the Greens politician made clear that her government would cooperate if the Republican wins a second White House term in November, as it has with the Democratic Biden administration.

“We obviously have an intensive interest that we will continue this trustful relationship” with the US, she said.

Baerbock referred to a statement by the former president at his Sept. 10 debate with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, in which he said Germany’s shift to renewable energy had failed, and that the country had resorted to building “normal” power plants.

“If my country is being presented as something which is just wrong, then it’s a responsibility of the foreign office to say: Sorry, but this is not how the situation in our country is,” Baerbock said, defending a social media retort by her ministry a day after Trump’s comment.

“Like it or not: Germany’s energy system is fully operational, with more than 50% renewables. And we are shutting down – not building – coal & nuclear plants. Coal will be off the grid by 2038 at the latest,” the foreign office posted on its English-language X feed.

Baerbock in 2023 traveled to Texas to meet Republican Governor Greg Abbott, a close Trump ally, and also met Republican members of Congress during that trip. She steered clear of presidential politics during her five-day stay in New York last week, where she attended the UN General Assembly.

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