(Bloomberg) --
European Union diplomats say there’s little that’s predictable about President Donald Trump’s trips over the Atlantic but they’ve got used to expecting one thing at least: some not-so-friendly tweets.
As Trump gets ready to head for the Group of Seven leaders’ summit in Biarritz, France, at the weekend, his counterparts and their teams in the EU are already checking their phones and not liking what they see.
The “counterproductive” tweeting has already started, one of the bloc’s senior officials said on Thursday, adding that it’s noticeable the EU is on the receiving end of some no-so-friendly online outbursts every time Trump crosses the pond.
In the past 24 hours, Trump has once more turned his focus to EU countries’ defense spending, singling out Denmark’s contribution after he canceled talks with the Danish Prime Minister over her refusal to sell him Greenland.
European Council President Donald Tusk is concerned by Trump’s tweets because the U.S. president should be working with the EU rather than against it to defend western democracy, the official said. Transatlantic tensions are absolutely counterproductive, he said, and Trump’s Twitter tirades often don’t serve European or American interests, he said.
In the past, Trump has taken to Twitter to insult London mayor Sadiq Khan, criticize European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s stimulus plans, describe the U.K.’s then envoy to Washington as the “wacky ambassador” and, shortly after returning from a meeting with Emmanuel Macron in November, taunt the French president over his low approval ratings, France’s unemployment rate and the country’s capitulation to Nazi Germany in World War II.
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
POPULAR