President Trump was heading into what promised to be a contentious meeting with America’s NATO allies in Brussels Wednesday — a day after the EU’s chief warned him to be nice to his international friends because he has so few.
“Dear America, appreciate your allies. After all, you don’t have that many,” Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, said after a statement on more cooperation between the European Union and NATO.
Tusk also cautioned Trump before his meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin that “it is always worth knowing who is your strategic friend and who is your strategic problem.”
But the president brushed off claims he was alienating allies, even as he also declined to back embattled British Prime Minister Theresa May, whose government is in crisis over implementing Brexit.
“Well, we do have a lot of allies. But we cannot be taken advantage of. We’re being taken advantage of by the European Union,” Trump said at the White House on Tuesday before heading for the NATO talks.
He declined to give a vote of confidence to May — and praised her rival, Boris Johnson, who resigned as foreign secretary this week over the Brexit dispute with the PM.
Asked if she should remain in power, Trump said, “Well, that’s up to the people” of the UK, before heaping praise on Johnson.
“Boris Johnson is a friend of mine. He’s been very, very nice to me and very supportive. And maybe we’ll speak to him when I get over there. I like Boris Johnson,” he said.
Trump again chided fellow NATO members for not contributing enough for defense while maintaining a trade surplus with the US, his latest attack on America’s traditional allies.
He said in a Twitter post that a trade deficit with the EU “makes it impossible for our farmers and workers and companies to do business in Europe . . . and then they want us to happily defend them through NATO, and nicely pay for it. Just doesn’t work!” Talking about his meetings with NATO allies and May, Trump said that the “easiest” part of his overseas trip will probably be his face-to-face summit with Putin.
“So I have NATO, I have the UK, which is in somewhat turmoil and I have Putin,” the president said.
“Frankly, Putin may be the easiest of them all. Who would think?
“I think that getting along with Russia . . . is a good thing. It’s not a bad thing. I’ve said that many times.
