And do not forget, Germany is historically twice in the situation to keep the balance between east and west. Once after WWII and once in 1990 after the reunification. pumping money into Russia was also part of a global appeasement politics. That geopolitical game is well understood.
As a German, that is what I remember of that screaming. And now, some months in, we still have no clear statement who blew up the pipelines.
This whole pipeline game is far more complex than just "bad reliance of Germany from Russia"
You're right that this was a pretty easy call made by tons of people for a very long time before & after Trump. Also, GP is a little off, they didn't actually call him an 'idiot', they just smirked and said that they knew better:
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2018/09/25/trump-accuse...
> German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas could be seen smirking alongside his colleagues.
...
> Trump’s attacks haven’t changed that calculus. After his July remarks, Merkel responded that she may be in a better position to judge her country’s dependence than the current U.S. president.
> “I’ve experienced myself a part of Germany controlled by the Soviet Union, and I’m very happy today that we are united in freedom,” she said at the time.
(and check the videos: they only started laughing once he got past that sentence)
I will grant you that Trump did get this right... but it was by no means a policy that he was an architect of, and the degree to which he was invested in this policy was questionable (US sanctions were driven largely by Congress, not the president).