>> let's bring in cnn senior international correspondent fred pleitgen. fred, how should the u.s. interpret those comments? >> that the germans simply don't know where america stands. i think some of the things that angela merkel heard on president trump's trip to europe last week, specifically in brussels, but also at that nato trip in italy, really made her feel as though america might not be fully reliable or at least the sense the germans be fully reliable as a partner to the ju germans. i think several things stood out. one was when president trump was highly critical of other nato nations saying they needed to pay up more. also not being leer that america fully stands behind other nato countries. and then he appeared to attack the germans also in a newspaper article where he gave an interview where he apparently criticized the germans for importing too many -- exporting too many cars to america saying that the germans were very bad. so those are two things that