" Merkel noted that the EU was now on its own. It could no longer rely on the United States or post-Brexit Britain. Merkel implied that she’d come to this conclusion following her recent brushes with Trump. “I’ve experienced that in the last few days. We Europeans truly have to take our fate into our own hands,” she said, speaking in Munich. Trump was unpopular in Germany. For Merkel to distance herself from his administration made electoral sense. "

― Luke Harding , Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win