Mr Trump prompted outrage after a series Twitter messages last Sunday in which he said the four – understood to be Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, members of the House of Representatives who are known collectively as “the squad” – should go back to “the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came”. Footage at subsequent Trump rally showed large numbers of his supporters chanting: “Send her back” in reference to one of the women. Significantly, Ms Merkel rarely comments on other international leaders.
Nevertheless, the 65-year-old said yesterday of Mr Trumps’s remarks: “I firmly distance myself from them.”
She said she felt “solidarity with the women who have been targeted”.
Mr Trump has been criticised by among other world leaders, Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May, New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern and Canada’s Justin Trudeau.
When asked whether she shared their concerns, Mrs Merkel said “yes” several times.
She added: “The strength of the United States, from my point of view, is precisely that it’s a country where people from all different kinds of nationalities have contributed to the strength of the American people.”
As such, Mr Trump’s comments “are something that run counter to the strength of the United States,” she said.
Mrs Merkel’s relationship with Mr Trump since his election has been frosty at best, and there was speculation that he snubbed her during the recent D-Day commemoration ceremony in Portsmouth last month.
Mr Trump’s failure to shake her hand on that occasion may in part have been in response to a speech made by Mrs Merkel while collecting an honorary degree at Harvard University, which was widely interpreted as being a rebuke of Mr Trump in policy areas including immigration and international trade.
She was also pictured standing over him during last year’s G7 summit in Canada in a widely shared photograph in which many suggested she was voicing her disapproval.
For Mr Trump’s part, he has criticised Germany on numerous occasions over its failure to make a contribution to NATO amounting to two percent of GDP.
He was also angered by the Nordstream 2 pipeline which will double the amount of natural gas arriving from Russia to Germany, commenting: “Germany is paying Russia billions and billions of dollars, which, frankly speaking, we deem inappropriate.
“We never thought it was appropriate, and, certainly, this is very bad for the German people.”
Speaking last month to German magazine Focus, Thomas Jager, chairman of International Politics and Foreign Policy at the University of Cologne, described Mrs Merkel’s relationship with Mr Trump as “disastrous”, suggesting the pair have “nothing more to say”.
He added: “I consider the fact that the Chancellor is trying to forge alliances against Trump even in areas from which neither Germany nor Europe can benefit, a very big mistake.
“Trump and Merkel are both very powerful politicians.
“But there is a difference that the Chancellor apparently completely ignores: Trump’s power is covered by the economic and military importance of the United States, but Merkel’s isn’t.”