European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will visit President Trump at the White House next week, following the U.S. leader’s blistering criticism of critical NATO allies and the European Union during a week-long trip to Europe.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement on Tuesday that Juncker would arrive at the White House on July 25 for a previously planned meeting that will focus on “improving transatlantic trade and forging a stronger economic partnership.”
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Trump tore into the EU in a CBS News interview over the weekend, calling the union a “foe” of Washington because of its trade policies, which the president has long decried as one-sided and unfair to the U.S.
European Council President Donald Tusk on Sunday rejected Trump’s characterization of the EU as an enemy of the U.S., saying that the two are “best friends.”
“America and the EU are best friends,” Tusk wrote on Twitter. “Whoever says we are foes is spreading fake news.”
Trump also stirred controversy during his transatlantic trip last week by fiercely criticizing British Prime Minister Theresa May’s handling of her country’s exit from the EU, complaining that she did not listen to his advice. May later said that Trump advised her to “sue” the union.
Juncker said late last month that he would pay a visit to Washington after Trump returned from his trip, which included the annual NATO summit in Brussels, meetings and golf in the United Kingdom and a highly anticipated sit-down with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland.
Next week’s meeting with Juncker comes nearly two months after the Trump administration announced that it would impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the EU, as well as Canada and Mexico.
Those duties prompted retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, ranging from blue jeans to bourbon to motorcycles, ramping up tensions between Washington and some of its closest allies.