Failed U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was apparently downgraded to Germany’s Intercity Express (ICE) train on Thursday as she travelled to the Munich Security Conference that hit the headlines last year after Vice-President JD Vance used his podium to deliver some hard truths on the crises facing Europe.
Hillary Clinton arrived in Munich, Germany on a high-speed ICE intercity train on Thursday, climbing off a first-class carriage to platform 22 surrounded by aides and accompanied by an armed German Federal police officer. Michaela Kuefner, the Chief Political Editor at Deutsche Welle News suggested the four-hour journey may have been less than commodious as there was a fault with the onboard catering.
She said: “Hillary Clinton arrives by train from Berlin… No hassle from people asking about those files. No hot drinks because of a power failure in the bistro for half the trip.”
Public trains — even by first class — may not be the first choice for cross-European travel for would-been Presidents, but a nationwide airline strike in Germany today may have sealed Clinton’s fate.
Hundreds of flights were grounded Thursday because of union walkouts over retirement benefits. National carrier Lufthansa operated ten hourly shuttle flights between Berlin and Munich daily, and the airline announced today those with domestic flights booked could exchange their tickets for no extra cost for a train ticket with Deutsche Bahn for the equivalent ICE service.
The Munich Security Conference, a major event in the geopolitical year, begins on Friday and is due to run to Sunday. The event, long attended by world leaders and top security thinkers — and not unfamiliar territory to former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — gained particular prominence in 2025 when the February event became one of the first outings for the new U.S. foreign policy in the second term of President Donald Trump.
As reported then, his emissary to Europe, Vice President JD Vance told the assembled delegates the U.S. government found the continent’s drift from democracy towards censorship “shocking”, warning the greatest enemy to Europe is now “the threat within”. Vance said: “For years we’ve been told everything we fund and support is in the name of our shared democratic values… But when we see European courts cancelling elections and senior officials, threatening to cancel others, we have to ask if we are holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard. And I say ourselves because I fundamentally think we are on the same team. We must do more than talk about democratic values, we must live them.”
The criticism was so poorly received conference boss and top German diplomat known as the laughing man, Christoph Heusgen, broke down in tears in response.
This year, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is leading is leading the U.S. delegation to the conference. The Associated Press notes the conference “warily” awaits his arrival, with U.S. officials reportedly saying his speech is intended to be “less contentious but philosophically similar” to Vance’s 2025 address.
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