Donald Trump: The EU is one of America’s greatest foes

DONALD Trump described the European Union as one of America’s biggest foes – hours before his meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

In yet another incendiary interview, the US President named the EU ahead of Russia and China on a list of his enemies yesterday.

Mr Trump said the EU is ‘taking advantage’ of America through its trade deals and the level of Nato defence spending by some member countries. He travelled from his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland last night to Finland, where he is due to meet Mr Putin today.

The US president is under pressure to challenge Mr Putin over the Novichok nerve agent poisoning in Britain after being shown compelling evidence linking the Kremlin to the attack.

And critics in the US have called for him to cancel the meeting after the Justice Department charged 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking Democratic officials during the 2016 presidential elections.

Mr Trump said he goes into the meeting with Mr Putin with ‘low expectations’ and said ‘that getting along with Russia is a good thing’. During an interview with CBS News at his golf resort, he was asked who his ‘biggest foe’ currently is.

He replied: ‘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 [as one], but they’re a foe. 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 means they are competitive.’

Asked why he listed the EU as an enemy ahead of China and Russia, he said: ‘I respect the leaders of those countries. 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.’

And he reiterated his criticism of Germany for paying billions for Russian gas exports while America spends billions of dollars to help with counter-defence against the Kremlin.

‘They’ve really taken advantage’