 Following the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency in November 2016, Merkel was described by "The New York Times" as "the Liberal West's Last Defender".Since 2016 she has been described by some commentators as the "leader of the free world".Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described Merkel in 2017 as "the most important leader in the free world", She is currently the senior G7 leader.