World leader Trump admires? The same one he’s vilified

Asked to name a world leader he admires and would like to emulate, Donald Trump on Thursday pointed to the foreign head of state he has most vigorously criticized on the campaign trail.

“Well, I think (Angela) Merkel is a really great world leader, but I was very disappointed that – when she – this move with the whole thing on immigration,” Trump said, referring to the German chancellor.

Trump has repeatedly vilified Merkel for accepting an influx of Syrian refugees into her country, saying she is “ruining Germany.” His criticism of Merkel began last December when Time magazine named Merkel person of the year over Trump.

Despite offering up Merkel as a world leader he would “admire, respect, would like to emulate” in an interview with Boston-based NECN, Trump continued to slam the German leader.

“I was always a Merkel person, I thought really fantastic, but I think she made a very tragic mistake a year-and-a-half ago,” Trump said, referring to her acceptance of refugees from Syria, a country torn by civil war, devastated by a mix of ISIS’ brutal tactics that world leaders have slammed as genocidal and indiscriminate bombings by the Syrian Army.

Trump wasn’t the only presidential candidate to name Merkel on Thursday when asked which world leader they admire – the other candidate was Hillary Clinton, whom Trump once deemed “America’s Angela Merkel.”

Clinton said she likes “a lot of the world leaders,” but said “one of my favorites is Angela Merkel.”

“I think she has been an extraordinary, strong leader during difficult times in Europe,” Clinton said during a gaggle with reporters aboard her campaign plane.

The questions about world leaders came after Libertarian candidate for president Gary Johnson flubbed the question Wednesday during an MSNBC town hall when he could not name a world leader he admires or respects.

Johnson tried naming former Mexican President Vicente Fox, but could not remember his name.