Politics- Europe's biggest
news magazine, Der Spiegel, has brandedDonald Trump "loser of the year" in a lengthy article criticising the president's refusal to concede the US presidential election to Joe Biden. - It came as President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were named Time Magazine's "Person[s] of the Year."
- Der Spiegel said that the president was "a man who ... was never concerned with the common good, but always with one thing - himself."
Donald Trump has been branded "loser of the year" by one of Europe's biggest news magazines, as President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were named Time Magazine's "Person[s] of the Year."
Der Spiegel, one of Germany's most widely read German-language news websites, published a long article in German about the president under the headline "Der Verlierer des Jahres," which translates as "The Loser of the Year."
The article, published on Thursday, criticised the president for refusing to concede the election to Biden and described him as "a man who ... was never concerned with the common good, but always with one thing - himself."
"Nothing is normal under Trump," the article, written by the publication's Washington bureau chief and a Berlin-based correspondent, said.
"He refuses to admit defeat. Instead, he speaks of massive electoral fraud, although there is no evidence for it. The whole thing is not surprising. Trump's presidency ends as it began. Without decency and without dignity."
Trump has since allowed the process of transition to Biden's administration but has refused formally to concede, instead continuing to repeat unsubstantiated claims that the election was rigged against him.
Polls have consistently indicated that Trump is deeply unpopular in Germany. Pew Research Center, a polling company, found in surveys carried out in 2020 that roughly three-in-four Germans lacked confidence in the US president.
The article was published online on the same day that Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris were named Time magazine's "person of the year." Time said that "the Biden-Harris ticket represents something historic," and said the award was "not just about the year that was, but about where we're headed."
—TIME (@TIME) December 11, 2020
Trump coveted the Time Magazine award himself for many years - and frequently complained that he had not received it - until he was given the recognition he sought in 2016.
The previous year, when German chancellor Angela Merkel was named as Time's "person of the year," Trump vented on Twitter that he had not received the award and said Merkel was "ruining Germany."
—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2015
"I knew last year that @TIME Magazine lost all credibility when they didn't include me in their Top 100...," he tweeted in 2012.
A fake photo of Trump mocked up as Time's person of the year was also discovered being displayed prominently in one of Trump's golf clubs, as reported by The Washington Post in 2017.