17 July 2018 10:07 am
Washington (dpa) 16 July 2018 - Calling your best friends foes only makes your real foes happy,” European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans tweeted late Sunday, in response to US President Trump’s claim that he views the bloc as a “foe” over its trade policy.
Trump, in an interview with US broadcaster CBS from his golf course in Scotland just before the Helsinki summit, said he had “low expectations” for the highly anticipated meeting in Finland.
When asked by the CBS interviewer who Trump believes is his “biggest foe globally right now,” the president responded with a list.
“Well, I think we have a lot of foes. I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade. Now, you wouldn’t think of the European Union, but they’re a foe,” Trump said.
“Russia is a foe in certain respects. China is a foe economically, certainly they are a foe. But that doesn’t mean they are bad. It doesn’t mean anything. It means that they are competitors,” he said, adding that the EU “is very difficult.”
“I have big problem with Germany,” Trump said citing an energy pipeline deal that country made with Russia, “you’re supposed to be fighting for someone and that someone gives billions of dollars to the one you are guarding against,” Trump said.
European Council President Donald Tusk took to Twitter to respond to Trump: “America and the EU are best friends. Whoever says we are foes is spreading fake news.”