‘Wildly inappropriate’: Trump ally blasts German chancellor for Biden praise

A former Trump-era senior Pentagon official questioned Sunday whether German Chancellor Olaf Scholz “really knows what he’s talking about in the American context” after he offered strong praise for President Joe Biden at the G7 summit.

Elbridge Colby — who served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development from 2017 to 2018 and is poised for a major national security role if Donald Trump is elected again — posted on X: “I think staying out of each other’s elections is better.”

“What message are Republicans supposed to take about the current Berlin government?” Colby wrote.

On the sideline of the G7 summit in Italy on Saturday, Scholz praised Biden as “one of the most experienced politicians in the world” and “a man who knows exactly what he is doing” in an interview with Axel Springer media outlets. (POLITICO is owned by Axel Springer.)

He spoke highly of Biden’s domestic and international policies, saying they’ve promoted “proper economic development,” “peace and security” and “togetherness and cohesion” in the U.S.

The chancellor also told reporters that he thought Biden was likely to win in November and called speculation over the outcome of the American elections “a bit strange.”

“Is the Chancellor in a position to comment on the U.S. economic and social cohesion situations?” Colby wrote in response, bashing Scholz’s “remarkable” comments. “I think this would elicit laughs if not outright scorn from many Americans.”

He added that “it’s wildly inappropriate to comment on domestic American politics and elections.”

Concerns about the future of American leadership and the possible return of Trump hung over the heads of the U.S.’ closest allies at the G7 summit over the weekend. The Biden administration’s hesitance to equip Ukraine with more advanced weaponry and Trump’s threats to withdraw from NATO, among other worries, have had international allies on edge in the leadup to a close 2024 race.

Colby, a front-runner to be the potential Trump administration’s national security adviser, has centered on countering China in his foreign policy and largely minimized American involvement in other global affairs — including Russia and Ukraine. He has previously criticized British Foreign Secretary David Cameron for pushing for aid to Ukraine in a trip to D.C., labeling it an “astounding intervention into the American system.”