NOTE TO EDS: THIS IS THE FIRST EDITION OF SIMON'S "WASHINGTON NOTEBOOK" WHICH WILL BECOME A REGULAR FEATURE DURING THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY
The German government has hit back angrily at Donald Trump after the US President-elect described Chancellor Angela Merkel's immigration policy as a "very catastrophic mistake"…..and called the NATO military alliance "obsolete".
Germany's Foreign Minister accused Mr. Trump of causing "worry" among European allies, just days before his inauguration in Washington on Friday.
Meanwhile, a growing number of Democrats say they will boycott the inauguration in an unprecedented display of hostility towards an incoming President.
And, as our US Correspondent Simon Marks tells us in his Washington Notebook, that is not the only way in which Donald Trump is poised this week to make history.
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Donald Trump likes to say that his favorite book is his own tome "The Art of the Deal".
The evidence of the last 24 hours suggest it definitely is not "How to Win Friends and Influence People".
With the hours counting down to his inauguration here on Friday, he managed to infuriate the government of German Chancellor Angela Merkel by calling her open-door policy on refugees a "very catastrophic mistake".
He also infuriated NATO chiefs by calling the Alliance "obsolete"….although they were able to take some solace in that fact that last week, the man nominated by the same Donald Trump to run things at the Pentagon spoke of his commitment to NATO in rock-solid terms, calling it the "most successful military alliance in modern history".
If there is a gulf between the President and some of the men and women he's selected to work alongside him, we will only discover if it can be bridged once Donald Trump moves into the Oval Office.
How for instance will the new Secretary of State Rex Tillerson square his tough talk on Russia with a President who is floating the idea of lifting sanctions against Vladimir Putin.
And how will Donald Trump even agree with himself?
Last month he said he had no problem with the concept of a nuclear arms race….this week, he suddenly favors nuclear arms reduction talks with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.
For now, though, all eyes are on the inauguration itself, with news organizations here keeping a running tally of the number of Democrats in Congress who say they'll boycott it.
At the time I'm recording this, that number is up to 26….an unprecedented display that Democrats say reflects their rejection of the bigotry they believe Mr. Trump represents.
Polarization in Washington, of course, is nothing new….in fact, former President Harry Truman once said he found the place so lonely that: "if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog".
But even there, Donald Trump's got a problem: he hasn't got a dog….or a cat….or even a goldfish.
It turns out that he is about to become the first American President since the 1860s who will be moving in to the White House pet-less.
Now what d'you think? Does he look like an animal person to you?
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