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Trump calls European Union a 'foe' – ahead of Russia and China Trump calls European Union a 'foe' – ahead of Russia and China
(about 2 hours later)
A day before his summit in Helsinki with Vladmir Putin, Donald Trump identified the European Union as a “foe” – ahead of Russia and China. Donald Trump described the European Union one of his greatest “foes” in another extraordinary diplomatic intervention on Sunday, just hours before sitting down to a high-stakes summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Trump was speaking to CBS News at his Turnberry golf course in Scotland, in an interview recorded on Saturday and scheduled for full broadcast on Monday. Asked “who is your biggest foe globally right now”, he said: “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.” Asked in a TV interview to name his “biggest foe globally right now”, the US president started by naming the European Union, calling the body “very difficult” before ticking off other traditional rivals like Russia and China.
Earlier on Sunday, British prime minister Theresa May said Trump advised her this week to “sue” the EU, as she pursues a Brexit deal. Hours earlier, British prime minister Theresa May revealed that Trump suggested she “sue the EU” rather than go into negotiations over Brexit.
“Russia,” Trump told CBS, “is 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.” “Well I think we have a lot of foes,” Trump told CBS News at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland. “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.”
Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, used a loaded term to answer Trump on Twitter, writing: “America and the EU are best friends. Whoever says we are foes is spreading fake news.” Apparently taken aback, anchor Jeff Glor replied: “A lot of people might be surprised to hear you list the EU as a foe before China and Russia.”
On CBS, in response to the suggestion that “a lot of people might be surprised to hear you list the EU as a foe before China and Russia”, Trump said: “No I look at them all, look, EU is very difficult … 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, you know, as an example a big problem with Germany.” But Trump insisted: “EU is very difficult. I respect the leaders of those countries. But – in a trade sense, they’ve really taken advantage of us.”
The president then repeated his complaint, made at the Nato summit in Brussels, about a gas pipeline between Germany and Russia. Trump’s controversial tour through Europe has turned postwar western relations inside out, the president sparring with Nato leaders in Brussels and blasting May’s Brexit strategy in the Sun newspaper. His remarks have reflected one of this president’s core beliefs: that America is exploited by its allies.
“You’re supposed to be fighting for someone,” he said, “and then that someone gives billions of dollars to the one you’re, you know, guarding against. I think it’s ridiculous so I let that be known also this time.” Donald Tusk, president of the European council, tweeted: “America and the EU are best friends. Whoever says we are foes is spreading fake news.”
Trump suggested Germany was “waving a white flag” to Russia. Among senior Democrats, concern remains that he may do just that when he meets Putin three days after 12 Russians were indicted over the theft of data from Democratic bodies ahead of the 2016 election. Trump departed Scotland for Helsinki, where allies are concerned about how much common ground he will find with Putin when they meet at the Finnish presidential palace.
Trump told CBS he “hadn’t thought” about asking Putin to extradite the 12 intelligence officials but added: “But I certainly, I’ll be asking about it.” It’s leaving the Washington foreign policy community utterly terrified. Trump has been undermining traditional alliances
It is highly unlikely the Russians will ever be sent to the US. Putin has said Russians indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller – 13 other individuals and three entities were named in February – will “never” be extradited. From Air Force One, as media scrutiny intensified, the president unleashed a bizarre volley of tweets: “Unfortunately, no matter how well I do at the Summit, if I was given the great city of Moscow as retribution for all of the sins and evils committed by Russia... over the years, I would return to criticism that it wasn’t good enough – that I should have gotten Saint Petersburg in addition!”
Speaking to ABC’s This Week, national security adviser John Bolton said: “The United States does not have an extradition process with Russia so it’s pretty hard to imagine how that would happen.” Trump added: “Much of our news media is indeed the enemy of the people and all the Dem[ocrats... know how to do is resist and obstruct! This is why there is such hatred and dissension in our country – but at some point, it will heal!”
It would be “pretty silly to demand something that [Trump] can’t get legally”, Bolton said, because “to demand something that isn’t going to happen puts the president in a weak position”. The Kremlin has billed the summit as “the event of the summer” but Trump and advisers have played down expectations for a meeting that will include a session attended only by the two leaders and their interpreters. Putin and Trump are expected to discuss issues from nuclear arms treaties to the conflict in Syria, but with a very loosely-defined agenda.
Trump was briefed on the indictments ahead of their announcement on Friday. Mueller is investigating election interference and links between Trump aides and Moscow. Four former Trump campaign figures, including his first national security adviser and a campaign manager, have been indicted. Trump denies collusion and has repeatedly called the Mueller investigation a “rigged witch hunt”. “I go in with very low expectations,” Trump said on CBS.
In surprising remarks, the president admitted he “hadn’t thought” of asking Putin to extradite 12 Russians indicted over the theft of data from Democratic party bodies ahead of the 2016 election.
“I might,” he said. “I hadn’t thought of that. But I certainly, I’ll be asking about it.”
Trump was briefed on the indictments, made by special counsel Robert Mueller, ahead of their announcement on Friday. Mueller is investigating Russian election interference and links between Trump aides and Moscow. Four Trump campaign figures, including his first national security adviser and a former campaign manager, have been indicted. Trump denies collusion and has repeatedly called the investigation a “rigged witch hunt”.
National security adviser John Bolton told ABC News he expected Trump to press Putin on election meddling.
“I find it hard to believe, but that’s what one of the purposes of this meeting is so the president can see eye to eye with President Putin and ask him about it,” Bolton said, on whether Putin knew about the hacking.
Democrats in Congress called for the Helsinki summit to be cancelled.
“Trump is a basically saying that indictment is just a witch hunt,” House intelligence committee member Adam Schiff told CNN. “That’s a great gift for Vladimir Putin.”
Nothing bad is going to come out of it, and maybe some good will come outNothing bad is going to come out of it, and maybe some good will come out
Speaking to CBS, he repeated a claim made in tweets from Scotland on Saturday – that his predecessor did not do enough in response to Russian interference. Mark Warner, ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence panel, told CNN he did not think Putin would “release those 12 Russian spies to the American government”.
“But again,” Trump said, “this was during the Obama administration. They were doing whatever it was during the Obama administration.” Trump also repeated a claim made in tweets on Saturday, blaming his predecessor for his response to the Russian interference. Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough, has said Republican Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell “dramatically watered down” a bipartisan statement issued before the election. After the election, Obama imposed sanctions on Russia.
Obama’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough, has said Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell “dramatically watered down” a statement on Russian interference issued before the election. Senior Obama adviser Ben Rhodes called McConnell’s actions “staggeringly partisan and unpatriotic”. After the election, Obama imposed sanctions. Trump said: “I think the DNC [Democratic National Committee] should be ashamed of themselves for allowing themselves to be hacked. They had bad defenses and they were able to be hacked. But I heard they were trying to hack the Republicans too. But – and this may be wrong – but they had much stronger defenses.”
Trump said: “And I heard that they were trying, or people were trying, to hack into the RNC too. The Republican National Committee. But we had much better defenses. I’ve been told that by a number of people. We had much better defenses, so they couldn’t. US intelligence chiefs have said the Trump administration is not doing enough to counter continuing Russian activity. On Saturday, homeland security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told a gathering of state officials there were no signs Russia was targeting the 2018 midterms at the “scale and scope” of two years ago.
“I think the DNC [Democratic National Committee] should be ashamed of themselves for allowing themselves to be hacked. They had bad defenses and they were able to be hacked.” Washington is watching the Helsinki meeting anxiously. Max Bergmann, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (CAP) Action Fund, said there were concerns Trump will make faux “deals” on Crimea, Ukraine or Syria and “agree to something that not even his own administration would find acceptable”.
US intelligence chiefs have said the Trump administration is not doing enough to counter continuing Russian activity. On Saturday, homeland security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told a gathering of state secretaries of state there were no signs Russia was targeting the 2018 midterms at the “scale and scope” of two years ago. He said: “It’s leaving the Washington foreign policy community utterly terrified. In the past week Trump has been sowing discord in Europe and undermining the traditional alliances: these are all objectives that Russia has had since they were the Soviet Union.”
After the indictments were announced, Democrats called for the cancellation of the Helsinki summit, hugely controversial already given Trump’s plan to meet Putin with only translators present. There is little hope that Trump will reprimand Putin over election meddling, added Bergmann, who served in the state department from 2011 to 2017.
Mark Warner, ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday he was “stunned that this president will not call out Putin’s bad behaviour” and worried that Putin would “take advantage of this president” and extract significant concessions. “It’s bizarre for the leader of the most powerful country in the world to meet the president of a weak country on bended knee,” he said. “Any other American president, if three days earlier the justice department said Russia meddled in the election, would probably have been cancelling the summit or making it about confrontation, redrawing the red lines and saying, ‘If you do this again, we will respond so aggressively that it’s not worth your while.’ There is zero expectation that’s going to happen.”
Trump defended his decision. “I think it’s a good thing to meet,” he said. “…I believe that having a meeting with Chairman Kim [Jong-un of North Korea] was a good thing. I think having meetings with the president of China [Xi Jinping] was a very good thing … so having meetings with Russia, China, North Korea, I believe in it. Nothing bad is going to come out of it, and maybe some good will come out.” Trump defended his decision to meet Putin. “I think it’s a good thing to meet,” he said. “…I believe that having a meeting with Chairman Kim [Jong-un of North Korea] was a good thing. I think having meetings with the president of China [Xi Jinping] was a very good thing … so having meetings with Russia, China, North Korea, I believe in it. Nothing bad is going to come out of it, and maybe some good will come out.”
But Trump and Bolton both sought to lower any expectations of serious results in Helsinki. The president told CBS he was “not going with high expectations”. Bolton told ABC the White House was “not looking for concrete deliverables”. Bolton, however, told ABC the White House was “not looking for concrete deliverables”. But, he said, “it’s very important that the president has a one-on-one conversation with President Putin and that’s how this is going to start off.”
He added: “It’s very important that the president has a one-on-one conversation with President Putin, and that’s how this is going to start off.”
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