Hillary Clinton slaps Donald Trump on Angela Merkel’s last day: ‘Leader of the free world for 4 years’

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Hillary Clinton appeared to have taken a shot at her longtime political enemy, former President Donald Trump, in her Twitter sendoff for the departure of German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday.

Merkel, of the center-right Christian Democratic Union Party, gave her seat at the Bundeskanzleramt on Tuesday to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a member of the leftist Social Democratic Party.

In commemoration, Clinton tweeted a photo of him and Merkel together, with a message praising the 67-year-old chancellor’s 16-year tenure.

“After a decade and a half in power, Angela Merkel is passing the chancellorship of Germany today,” he said.

“He led Europe through difficult times with resilience and courage, and for four long years, he was the leader of the independent world. Thank you, Angela.”

Observers defined the penultimate sentence as a likely shot at Trump, whose pre -administration has often been criticized by the political left inside and outside the country.

Clinton, however, is not the first visible American figure to make the claim that Merkel replaced Trump as “Leader of the Free World” – a moniker traditionally reserved for America’s president, who heads the world’s largest economy.

In a show at the annual event at SXSW in Texas in 2017, CNN anchor Jake Tapper did just that while denouncing Trump’s slander on several media outlets:

“It’s a difficult environment when the commander in chief of the country is, I would say, Leader of the Free World, but I think that’s Angela Merkel now, [he] hears anything he doesn’t like and calls it, ‘fake news,’ “Tapper joked then.

BERLIN, GERMANY – DECEMBER 08: The new German Chancellor Olaf Scholz holds his certificate of appointment at the Bellevue palace on December 8, 2021 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Emmanuele Contini/Getty Images) (Emmanuele Contini/Getty Images)

A 2016 Washington Post “analysis” also revealed that Merkel “became the leader of the independent world” during Trump’s tenure.

In Berlin on Tuesday, Scholz said he promises to “take on the major challenges of this decade and beyond.”

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Merkel wished Scholz luck at a handover ceremony at the chancellery. “Own this house and work with it for the good of our country,” he said. Scholz thanked Merkel for her work, telling her that “you made your mark in this country.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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