President Donald Trump criticizes Germany over its trade surplus with the United States.

TAORMINA, Sicily — President Donald Trump has criticized Germany’s trade surplus with the United States, drawing attention to a contentious issue at a summit of world leaders where trade is already a sticking point.

As the leaders of seven wealthy democracies gathered for difficult talks on trade and climate change, Germany’s Der Spiegel reported that Trump had told EU leaders the day before that the Germans were “bad, very bad” when it came to trade.

White House economic adviser Gary Cohn said the president’s comments focused on the surplus and not the country: “He said they’re very bad on trade, but he doesn’t have a problem with Germany.”

Cohn noted that “his dad is from Germany” and that he had said: “‘I don’t have a problem with Germany. I have a problem with German trade.”

The president of the European Union’s executive commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, said Trump was “not aggressive” in his comments about the surplus and called the report “exaggerated.”

It’s not the first time Trump has taken aim at Germany’s trade success. In January, he said that German car manufacturers like BMW could face U.S. tariffs of up to 35 percent if they set up plants in Mexico instead of in the U.S. and try to export the cars to the U.S.

Trump has said he wants trade to be balanced, fair and free so it benefits U.S. workers and companies.

Trump also has pushed back against earlier G-7 agreements to “fight all forms of protectionism.” G-7 finance ministers meeting in Bari, Italy, this month agreed only to say they are “working to strengthen the contribution of trade to our economies.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she spoke to Trump about the matter.

Merkel said Friday at the summit that it’s well known that Germany sells more to the U.S. than it buys from America, “which on the one hand has to do with the quality of our goods” but noted that there is also a lot of German direct investment in the U.S.