President Donald Trump on Saturday called the European Union a “foe” of the United States.
In the interview with Trump, parts of which were aired on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday morning, CBS’ Jeff Glor asked, “Who’s your biggest competitor? Your biggest foe, globally, right now?”
“Well, I think we have a lot of foes,” Trump said. “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.”
He continued: “Russia is a foe in certain respects. China is a foe, economically certainly they’re a foe. But that doesn’t mean they’re bad. It doesn’t mean anything. It means that they’re competitors. They want to do well, and we want to do well.”
Asked about people “surprised” to hear the EU come before Russia and China, Trump responded that “the EU is very difficult.”
The President also lied about his parents, saying that both “were born in EU sectors.” His mother was born in Scotland, he said accurately, and “my father was Germany.”
In fact, Trump’s father was born in New York City. His father’s parents were both born in Bavaria.
Trump also repeated his attack, premiered at the recent NATO summit, against the planned gas pipeline between Germany and Russia.
“What are they, waving a white flag?” he said of Germany.
Elsewhere in the interview, Trump said he had low expectations of his upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that he “hadn’t thought” to ask Putin to extradite the 12 Russians indicted Friday on charges related to the campaign-era hacking and theft of Democratic emails.
The President on Sunday also repeated his attack that journalists are the “enemy of the people.”
Heading to Helsinki, Finland – looking forward to meeting with President Putin tomorrow. 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…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2018
…over the years, I would return to criticism that it wasn’t good enough – that I should have gotten Saint Petersburg in addition! Much of our news media is indeed the enemy of the people and all the Dems…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2018
…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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2018
