DW interview quoted on Vanity Fair website

The following excerpts from the interview were recently published on the websites of Vanity Fair and Poynter under the heading "The view from Berlin."

David Maraniss, the great journalist-historian, was being interviewed in the Washington studios of Deutsche Welle by Brent Goff, an English-speaking anchor who's in Berlin. 

David Maraniss

Goff asked two questions you wouldn't get on American TV: Was Obama, who had just arrived in Berlin, passing the baton of leader of the free democratic world to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, not Trump? And was Obama in retrospect elected too early or by the wrong country? Would he have been more suited to run one in Europe?

"Interesting construction" on the first one, said Maraniss, who wondered if Merkel does inherit the mantle given the questions surrounding a Trump presidency.

DW presenter Brent Goff

On the latter, he said no, that Obama thought longterm and would likely see the Trump win as a major setback, yes, but also a historical blip with a raft of societal change he likes underway and inevitable.