"optimistic about bringing him[Trump] around" - How's that working out for you?  

There is no evidence that "Merkel's position [is] considerably weakened."  Have you been to Germany recently?  The economy is booming.  German cities are vibrant having risen from the rubble of the war.  

In fact, Merkel is now claiming the leadership of the free world - and rightly so.  After two world wars, economic devastation, holocaust, the Berlin Wall that divided their society for decades - it would seem that a German woman has emerged to command the Western alliance now that the United States has decided to turn its government over to a traitorous, vulgar clown.

Trump's health seems precarious - so "low energy" - that he needs a golf cart to haul his big ass around Sicily.  It would seem that our former European allies are about to launch out on their own leaving the US to rape their social safety net - bigly!