Following President Trump’s controversial interview with CBS, in which he called Europe one of America’s biggest foes, European Commission president Donald Tusk fired back…
As we detailed earlier, when asked who America’s biggest foe globally is, Trump responded…
“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.”
The president went on to add that Russia and China are also on his list of enemies.
“Russia is foe in certain respects. China is a foe economically, certainly they are a foe. But that doesn’t mean they are bad,” he said. “It doesn’t mean anything. It means that they are competitive. They want to do well and we want to do well.”
Tusk immediately responded with a pointed tweet arguing that in fact “America and the EU are best friends,” and jabbing Trump specifically by adding that “Whoever says we are foes is spreading fake news.“
America and the EU are best friends. Whoever says we are foes is spreading fake news.
— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) July 15, 2018
As The Hill notes, Trump was not entirely negative as he said he could not take a fully combative stance to the EU because “both” of his parents were born there. His mother was born in Scotland, while his father was born in New York.
“You know I love those countries. I respect the leaders of those countries,” Trump said. “But, in a trade sense, they’ve really taken advantage of us, and many of those countries are in NATO and they weren’t paying their bills.”
Tusk’s comments come just 5 days after he also warned President Trump to “appreciate you allies” as there are fewer and fewer of them.
“America does not have, and will not have, a better ally than Europe.”
Tensions have been evident between Tusk and Trump for a while, as the European Commission President said that the American president appeared to gloat about the EU’s frailty when the two men first spoke (governments in several Eastern EU nations, such as Poland and Hungary, view Trump as a political ally in their fight against Europe’s liberal elites).
“Trump’s aversion to the EU and NATO exceeds standards, while his openness to people like the dictator of North Korea and President Putin is quite significant,” Tusk told Polish broadcaster TVN24 on Friday.
“I’m warning those in Europe who are happy to see that Trump can punch Europe” that a re-balancing of strategic U.S. relationships “should be a source of concern in our part of the continent, including in Poland,” he said.
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