German chancellor Olaf Scholz has been open in expressing his hopes that Donald Trump does not win the race for the US presidency in 2024.
Speaking to television channel n-tv whilst attending the G20 summit in Bali, Scholz said that he hoped US voters would again reject populism in the next presidential election. Conversely, he praised the current US president, Joe Biden, calling him a “very smart, very experienced politician who deals with issues of world development” and was a firm believer in transatlantic cooperation.
Scholz’s comments follow Trump’s long-awaited announcement that he would run in 2024. When Biden himself was asked if he wanted to comment on Trump’s announcement, he replied by saying “not really”. At the time the US president was standing alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, with the two grinning at each other after Biden’s response.
Meanwhile, the president of the German economic research institution DIW, Marcel Fratzcher, has warned that if Trump returns to the White House it could trigger a trade war. He told Reuters that ““Trump’s return as US President would be even more damaging to the economy than China’s recent change of direction,”. In particular, Fratzcher warned that a Trump trade war with China could lead to “punitive tariffs on German cars and other exports”.
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