"For me there are things that remain strange, like for example the visit of his daughter to Germany which was treated almost like a world event, while the mix of politics with family and business reminds us instead of nepotism and would be unimaginable here," he said.
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Gabriel was referring to the visit to Berlin of Ivanka Trump this week to take part in a women's empowerment summit at the invitation of conservative German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
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"It always bothers me when members of a family, who have never been elected, show up suddenly as official state representatives and are treated almost as if they were members of a royal family," the Social Democrat said in an interview published Saturday with the German regional media group Funke.
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Ivanka Trump, a former model who started her own fashion line, has worked for her billionaire-father Donald Trump's company and now has an office in the White House. She has been accused in the United States of benefiting from
nepotism.
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Commenting on the US president's first 100 days in office, Gabriel said the situation has "improved" but was "still not good."
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Merkel, in an interview with the Madsack media group published Saturday, said she had "developed a good working relationship" with Trump, "which clearly does not exclude different points of view."
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The two leaders have notably clashed over military spending for NATO and on trade.
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