Angela Merkel’s declaration on the weekend that Germany and continental Europe will have to depend more on themselves is being portrayed as the Donald Trump-inspired end of American leadership in Europe. But if that’s true, and we have heard this dirge before, the erosion of U.S. leadership hardly began with Mr. Trump. It started under Barack Obama, whose failure to lead was too often reinforced by his main partner in Europe, Mrs. Merkel.
OP-ED
Wall Street Journal: Angela Merkel’s lament
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel gives a press conference on the sideline of the EU leaders summit at the Europa building, the main headquarters of European Council and the Council of the EU, in Brussels, on April 29.
