Malankazooie, on 17 July 2018 - 11:10 PM, said:
I don't think so. It would not explain the same type of friendliness he displays with Kim Jong-un and Duterte, for example. Imho, Trump wants to be seen as a tough guy, a de-facto ruler/dictator.
When he became president, they had to explain to him the trias politica of democracy. He apparently really thought he could rule by decree and House, Senate and DoJ (and the media) were just there to legitimise and applaud his decisions: the independence of the Department of Justice especially galls him, see the witch hunt comments. He has a zero sum approach to everything and the fact that these organs are independent and can disagree with him, means to him he is weak. Bend them to his will, and he is strong.
To him, dictators (Putin, Kim, Duterte, Erdogan) have done just that. They are what he thinks he should be.
For him, it is easy to talk down to Merkel (elected but with sinking domestic approval, woman, Obama's friend, doesn't pay the NATO 2%, Germany is a soft/economic powerhouse): plenty of simple sticks to beat her with to make him look tough and dominant - in his eyes. He really cannot think further than that: he is Trump, he won the election, Germany should pay NATO, Mexico should pay the wall, et cetera. Simple things, involving money (which he pull numbers from the air for to quantify his success).
Then he meets Putin, who is what he wants to be. Trump doesn't care about human rights, democracy or historic geopolitical allies and antagonists and he sure as hell cannot word these complex issues. He cares about image and the perception of power. So he fawns and he agrees and he babbles.