Germany’s outgoing foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has insisted she had an advantage when dealing with US President Donald Trump and his administration – because she used to live in Florida.
Baerbock, a member of the Greens party, insisted in an interview with Bild on January 23 that her single year at an Orlando high school in the late 1990s gave her unique qualifications when it came to managing German-US relations.
“I once lived in Florida, that should not be underestimated,” she said when commenting on her strategy regarding how to deal with Florida Senator turned Trump Trade Secretary Marco Rubio.
“When I was 16, 17, I spent a year of high school in Orlando.”
The minister admitted she had yet to be given Rubio’s work phone number.
“The Americans are very reticent about that,” she said.
Baerbock emphasised that was normal, saying it took her more than three months to get the number of Rubio’s predecessor in the ex-US president Joe Biden administration, Antony Blinken.
She added that, while she had not met any members of the new Trump administration yet, members of her ministry had been in Washington for months preparing for the change in power.
“My officials are either already there or are currently travelling there,” she claimed, adding that she and her colleagues had “intensively prepared for the various situations”.
Tensions between Berlin and Trump have grown in recent weeks.
Members of the German left-wing “traffic light” coalition have repeatedly attacked newly appointed US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk for his pro-AfD interventions.
Baerbock continued the trend by accusing the X-owner of supporting a party with a platform that was “not compatible” with her country’s Constitution.
Germany’s outgoing left-wing Chancellor Olaf Scholz has told US tech billionaire Elon Musk that supporting so-called “extreme-right” positions did not count as free speech. https://t.co/XLCFTn26Um
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) January 22, 2025
