German news organizations reported that he had threatened to cut off imports of German cars,
and several of them — with a touch of hyperbole resulting from an imprecise translation of Mr. Trump’s comments into German — said that he had called Germans “very evil.”
As Mr. Trump showed up on Friday in an ancient amphitheater to be received by Prime
Minister Paolo Gentiloni of Italy, Mr. Cohn was busy cleaning up those comments.
“They said, ‘We hope he understands the E. U.
; we hope he understands NATO.’ ”
Mr. Trump seemed more at ease in Saudi Arabia, which is ruled by a hereditary royal family, than in Europe, where
he was faced with the youthful esprit of leaders like France’s 39-year-old president, Emmanuel Macron.
“There was a lot of what I would call pushing and prodding,” Mr. Cohn said, “I think
the president learned how important it is for the United States to show leadership.”
Still, the tone was a notable departure from the visit to the Middle East, where Mr. Trump scrupulously avoided lecturing
the Saudis on human rights or the Israelis on their construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Though White House officials say he remains deeply skeptical about the Paris climate accord, Mr. Cohn said he listened carefully to the European leaders — yielding
the floor to several of them before he spoke — so he could hear their arguments about why the United States should not withdraw from the agreement