President Donald Trump is known internationally as an idiot. World leaders across the globe have either made it clear that they think he’s a jerk and a nutcase or, like Kim Jong Un, they’re nice enough to his face because they know he’ll be easy to take advantage of.
In a commencement speech given by German Chancellor Angela Merkel at Harvard University yesterday evening, where she was awarded an honorary degree earlier in the day, Merkel made it strikingly clear that does not fall into the category of world leaders that intends to pacify Donald Trump and his cruel, harmful ideas.
The Chancellor was careful to never specifically name president Trump but certainly left no confusion about who she was referring to when she implored the new graduates to “tear down walls of ignorance and narrow-mindedness” and filled the rest of her inspiring speech with fairly obvious drags on the United States president.
She also took the opportunity to warn the University students of the “threat climate change poses to our planet’s resources” and called upon the entire world to work together — another apparent jab at Trump, as he pointedly pulled the US from the Paris climate agreement in 2017.
Merkel began her powerful address by speaking on her life in former East Germany while the Berlin wall still stood. She described her life as she would walk home from work every day, towards the wall, only to have to “turn away from freedom” at the last minute.
“The Berlin Wall limited my opportunities. It quite literally stood in my way,” Merkel stated to the crowd. She went on to stress the importance of “multilateralism instead of unilateralism,” described as a “global” way of thinking instead of a national one and “being open-minded instead of isolationist.”
“Protectionism and trade conflicts jeopardize free international trade and therefore the very foundations of our prosperity,” Chancellor Merkel said.
Angela left Harvard University graduates with this:
I want to leave this wish with you: Tear down walls of ignorance and narrow-mindedness, for nothing has to stay as it is.”
Please excuse us as we daydream about having a leader like Merkel instead of the blowhard, bag of hot wind that is president Trump.
Featured image via screen captureÂ
