'This is no longer America': Merz criticized changes in the US under Trump.

The German Chancellor candidate and leader of the election race, Friedrich Merz, is 'very concerned' about the recent events in the United States.

Amid serious reforms of the federal government, he stated that under President Donald Trump, the US is 'no longer the America we once knew', reports ZN.UA, citing Politico.

'The way officials are being dismissed, the Justice Department, the prosecutor's office, the way pardons are granted to people who have been sentenced to years in prison, will have consequences for America,' Merz warned at a rally in Singen.

Merz's statement came against the backdrop of cuts in the federal government of the US and in the field of foreign aid following Trump's assumption of office. Since his return to the White House, his administration has sent emails to civil servants with offers of 'deferred resignation' and discarded dozens of prosecutors involved in criminal cases related to the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. In addition, Washington froze foreign aid and announced the sending of nearly all employees of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on paid leave.