Who leads the free world now?

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For most of recent history, the President of the U.S. has been dubbed the “leader of the free world.”

However, during Trump’s presidency, Angela Merkel held the title. With both Trump and Merkel out of office, who holds the title now?

Many people would say Biden, out of tradition. However, the Supreme Court is considering at least diluting Roe v. Wade, and many states have passed voting restrictions. While not of Biden’s doing, we are still now the land of the not-so-free.

As for Germany, Olaf Scholz has not been chancellor long enough for us to make an assessment.

My guess would be Biden, Trudeau, Macron, Rutte or Draghi. Any other contenders?

If officially a position it will be the antichrist. You have to live in America to believe your ex presidents had so much power because they didn't really. Only to those who live in the USA. China and Russia had more power in comparison. Russia by land mass and China by people numbers and the number of businesses and companies around the world that they own, and when it comes to owning companies, India is not far behind.

The EU is not exactly a free state because the head of the EU is not an elected position. One could say it is a form of dictatorship (?) but has democratic elections in each of its regions (Countries) to elect people to help make decisions via a vote. It is a wierd mix. Different from the UK and the USA where the leader is a voted in position, so while Merkyl who was the EU leader was in a very powerful position, under your classification it would not have been a first world leadership?

I was under the impression the Prime Minister of the UK was elected by parliament, though the MPs are elected. The people don't vote for the PM directly, unless I'm wrong. Then again, in the US, people vote at the state level, then the states vote for president depending on number of electoral votes.

Regardless, that's not what I was getting at. The EU isn't really a sovereign nation in its own right, though it acts as a supra-state or confederacy. But it's more of a Union of sovereign countries. Most of the EU policies affect the member states, not a whole lot to do with foreign affairs unless it relates to immediate EU neighbors or imports/exports. Still, if it came to military action, like, serious military action, I think things would fall apart. If Germany wants to go to war with some non-First World country, and Belgium disagrees, and Spain agrees in principal but doesn't want to commit any troops, the EU would probably disintegrate.

I was talking about countries on the individual level. With the South China Sea, China doesn't care what Denmark has to say. Vladimir Putin in Russia is indifferent to Ireland's stance on anything. In terms of influence and concern and even labeling someone as the bad guy, non-First World Countries still see America as the most dominant or the most likely to "try something," or the rallying point. Whoever happens to be leading America is the "leader" so to speak.

And First World nations are all allied...USA, Canada, Australia/New Zealand, pretty much all of Western Europe and now Central Europe. And much of Latin America (although some of these countries may have Third World status). So, there's no real threat among ourselves of warfare or invasion.

It's really First World (aka "Free World) vs. diplomacy with the Second and Third World countries. Yes, America by default is still the largest, most populous, most dominant in how the outside world interacts with the "Free World." The actual leaders themselves are somewhat irrelevant, just that the POTUS is also, by default, head of the most influential First World country.

Personally to me it would be closer to someone like Jerome Powell because he has way more power over the world's daily life and America's Daily life than Trump or Biden.But I think Biden is the puppet "Leader of the Free World" but I would think Jerome Powell would be the actual world leader since he controls the FED.

I don't think there is a free world. It seems rather a contradiction in terms that a free society would have an authority figure telling people what they could and couldn't do.

Biden held a "Summit for Democracy" a couple weeks ago. Here's the invite list. Hungary appears to be the only European country not invited that wasn't part of the USSR. I suppose he has to do this owing to the demands of global politics, but arbitrarily deciding which countries are and are not democratic leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I'm not usually a big critic of Biden though but he's been in this game a long time.

We all know it has been, and continues to be.... Oprah!