On the eve of his meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump rattled allies once more by labeling the European Union a "foe" with regard to trade.
In a pre-summit interview with CBS News' "Face the Nation" program, Mr Trump lumped in the EU with China and Russia as US economic adversaries.
"I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade," he said.
US President Donald Trump lists Russia, EU and China as 'foes' | https://t.co/deSBRNUI1T pic.twitter.com/PN9KpKf2qM
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) July 15, 2018
Mr Trump and Mr Putin will meet tomorrow in Helsinki for their first stand-alone meeting since Mr Trump took office in January 2017.
The US President arrived in Helsinki this evening after spending the day playing golf at his private club in Scotland.
The Helsinki summit, which comes at one of the most crucial junctures for the West since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, has alarmed some NATO allies who fear Mr Putin might seek a grand deal that would undermine the US-led transatlantic alliance.
During last week's NATO summit in Brussels, Mr Trump repeatedly criticised other member countries for failing to spend more on defense, and openly questioned the alliance's purpose.
In recent months, he has also been highly critical of the EU in trade terms, arguing that its policies make it difficult for US exporters.
After Mr Trump labeled the EU a "foe," Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, responded on Twitter, using one of Mr Trump's favorite stock phrases.
"America and the EU are best friends," Mr Tusk wrote. "Whoever says we are foes is spreading fake news."
America and the EU are best friends. Whoever says we are foes is spreading fake news.
— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) July 15, 2018
Mr Trump and his aides have been working through the weekend to soften expectations for tangible results from the Russia meeting.
"I go in with low expectations," Mr Trump told CBS.
John Bolton, Trump's national security adviser, said in an interview with ABC's "This Week" that the United States would not be looking for "deliverables" and that the meeting would be "unstructured," beginning with a one-on-one session between the two leaders.
The US Ambassador to Russia, Jon Huntsman, told NBC'S "Meet the Press" that the meeting was "an attempt to see if we can defuse and take some of the drama, and quite frankly some of the danger, out of the relationship right now."
A probe over allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election has clouded Mr Trump's presidency. He has denied any collusion with the Russians by his campaign and Russia denies it meddled.
For Donald Trump, the formal meeting with Mr Putin is an opportunity to develop a closer working relationship with the Russian president.
They have met twice before on the sidelines of international summits. Last November, in Vietnam, they agreed to maintain open military channels of communications between their forces in Syria.
The meeting comes just days after 12 Russian intelligence officers were charged by a US federal grand jury for hacking the Democrats ahead of the 2016 election, the most detailed US accusation yet that Moscow meddled in the election to help Mr Trump.
When asked by CBS if he would ask Putin to extradite the Russians to the United States, Mr Trump said he might. Russia's constitution forbids the extradition of its own citizens.
"I hadn't thought of that," Mr Trump said. "But certainly, I'll be asking about it."
