Donald Trump Calls The European Union The United States’ Biggest “Foe”

On Sunday, President Donald Trump called the European Union the biggest “foe” of the U.S. in an interview with CBS.

When asked by CBS Evening News anchor Jeff Glor about who he thinks America’s biggest foe is, globally, right now Trump said, “Well, I think we have a lot of foes. I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us is in trade. Now, you wouldn’t think of the European Union, 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 doesn’t mean anything. It means that they are competitive.” Trump added, “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.”

The timing of the remarks was indicative of the precarious state of relations between the U.S., Europe and Russia. In Brussels, Trump insulted America’s longstanding allies, blasting them for not spending enough on defense. He skipped scheduled meetings with world leaders, told Germany it was “totally controlled ” and “captive to Russia,” and questioned the value of NATO as a whole.

Trump also made his first official visit to the U.K., making controversial comments about Prime Minister Theresa May’s strategy in Brexit negotiations, saying she should sue the E.U. He also said her handling of Brexit would “probably kill” any chance of the U.S. and Britain working out a trade deal.

E.U. President Donald Tusk hit back at Trump on Sunday, tweeting that the U.S. and the E.U. were still “best friends” — and that anything else is “fake news.”