After president-elect likened Russia dossier leak to work of Nazis, Frank-Walter Steinmeir says he is at a loss over Trump’s remarks

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has said he was “perplexed” by Donald Trump comparing the leak of a dossier of unsubstantiated allegations against him to something that could have happened in Nazi Germany.

Furiously denying the explosive claims in the file as “phony stuff”, the incoming 45th US president said on Wednesday that the leak was “something that Nazi Germany would have done and did do”.

“To be honest, about your question about the comparison with Nazi Germany, I am as perplexed as you are, I can’t interpret that,” Steinmeier told reporters on Thursday.

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The focus of Trump’s hour-long press conference on Wednesday was the unsubstantiated claims that his aides colluded with the Kremlin to win the US election, and that Russia has compromising information on Trump.

Steinmeier, 60, has emerged in recent months as the German government’s most strident detractor of Trump.

He warned a day after Trump’s shock election that relations would become “more difficult” with the United States making more decisions “on its own”.

During the US campaign, Steinmeier was even more damning, saying the prospect of a Trump presidency was a “frightening” for the world.

He compared Trump to a “hate preacher”, saying he had much in common with “fearmongers” in Germany’s rightwing populist AfD party and advocates of Britain’s exit from the EU.

Steinmeier said that based on Trump’s first press conference since his election, it was not possible to draw conclusions on the foreign policy directions that his administration would take.

But he predicted that at some point, Trump would ease off on his penchant for communicating through Twitter.

“Each president must find his own style and President Trump will do that too. I can’t imagine that these Twitter messages will go on for long. In any case I’m not in a position to formulate a foreign policy concept in 140 characters,” said Steinmeier.

Trump has turned to Twitter to express views as wide-ranging as accusing China of military expansionism to hitting out at veteran actor Meryl Streep over her criticisms to demanding that Mexico pay for a border wall.