Obama, Merkel urge Trump to get serious on foreign policy
on your own, achieve much even though you may be economically strong,” she said, saying that populists like Trump are preaching “unfriendly policies.”
With Trump’s intentions unclear on several fronts, Obama’s final visit to Berlin offered him a moment to hand over leadership to Merkel of the Western liberal world view.
A scientist who grew up in the former East Germany, Merkel is now the world leader with the greatest affinity for Obama. She showered him with praise for their “very close, very intensive cooperation” during his last trip abroad as president and came near to tears as he all but endorsed her for a fourth term as German chancellor. She has not said whether she’ll run.
Her country is a leader on the continent already, having accepted millions of refugees from Syria and elsewhere in recent years in the biggest global humanitarian crisis since World War II and before that, leading the austerity effort to fight the economic crisis.
On Friday, Obama and Merkel plan to draw the leaders of France, Britain, Spain and Italy into the conversation about the future of Europe and their shared global agenda.