"maybe [clutches straws] they are using it to get a better outcome??"
Causing horrible uncertainty for 3 million people, women, men, children who came here legally or who are British but happen to have one parent born in Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Rome........ as a calculated strategy to broker a trade deal is pathetic, inhumane and sadly completely ineffective.
Wrong if 90% of British people are against kicking EU citizens out, it's not really much of a strong hand is it? IME most people are apathetic and couldn't care less about what happens with any of the 3 millions women, men, children. They only care about themselves. If some or all 3 million were deported, received letters from the home office to prepare to leave, were unable to begin medical treatment because they don't know where they will be living in 2 years time, or lost civil rights, I suspect that most people wouldn't mind that at all.
I doubt that Angela Merkel prevented the safe guarding of EU and British expats. I believe there were 4 countries that hesitated about a reciprocal deal but Germany wasn't one of them as far as I am aware. But Merkel bashing fits nicely with that silly myth of the scary EU as world power, doesn't it.
FWIW
www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/04/brexit-campaigners-theresa-may-guarantee-eu-citizens-rights
"Michael Gove and other Tory Brexit campaigners on Sunday called on Theresa May to unilaterally guarantee the rights of 3.2 million EU citizens to remain in the UK, as they back a parliamentary report that brands the government policy as “unacceptable”.
Gove is one of several pro-Brexit Tories on the all-party select committee on exiting the EU who say that May’s approach is causing great “anxiety” and “uncertainty” to people who work hard in the UK, pay their taxes and deserve immediate reassurance about their futures."