BERLIN — (CNN) A rejected Donald Trump on Wednesday said he had been the favorite to be TIME magazine’s Person of the Year and ripped winner Angela Merkel for “ruining Germany.”
“I told you @TIME Magazine would never pick me as person of the year despite being the big favorite. They picked person who is ruining Germany,” he tweeted.
Last month, Trump slammed Merkel, the German chancellor, for allowing a wave of Syrian refugees into Germany, saying she should “be ashamed of herself.” Trump said he had respected her but added, “She blew it, when she allowed this to happen, this migration.”
Trump first predicted that TIME would not name him Person of the Year at a Birmingham, Alabama, rally last month.
In announcing the choice, TIME Managing Editor Nancy Gibbs praised Merkel’s handling of multiple economic and national security issues.
“She has stepped up in a way that was uncharacteristic even for her,” Gibbs said on NBC’s “Today.” “She’s been a very long-serving leader, the longest-serving in the West. She controls the world’s fourth-largest economy, but this year she really was tested in how she would respond to some of the most difficult challenges that any leader is facing in the world.”
Trump was a finalist along with Black Lives Matter activists, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, transgender reality star Caitlyn Jenner and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.
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