Trump rails against German energy transition – “Two days away from extinction”

US President Donald Trump claimed at a campaign event that the energy transition had brought Germany almost to the brink of collapse. "We don't want windmills. (...) Show me a country with green energy and I'll show you a bankrupt country. You know, Germany tried. They were about two days away from extinction." (“Two days from extinction”)

Trump spoke on Saturday during a rambling speech lasting over an hour at a campaign rally in the US state of Tennessee.

French President Emmanuel Macron is “actually a nice guy,” Trump continued. At the same time, he said he threatened him in a phone call with additional tariffs of 250 percent if French pharmaceutical companies did not offer their drugs at lower prices in the USA.

"I'm going to put a 250 percent tariff on your damn wine and all the shit you send us. I'm going to put a 250 percent tariff on your wine, your champagne and everything you send us, Emmanuel."

In addition, the US President made very disparaging comments about the Muslim politician Abdul El-Sayed, who is running for the Democrats in the Senate elections. "I call him Muhammad. Someone said his name wasn't Muhammad, but Abdul. (...) I'm the president. I can call him whatever the hell I want. To me, he's Muhammad. And he's a radical jihadist," Trump said.

On November 3rd, US voters will re-elect around a third of the senators and the entire US House of Representatives in the general election. Trump's Republicans currently hold a slim majority in both chambers of Congress. If they lose even one of the two chambers, Trump will have to expect significantly more resistance to his policies.