‘With friends like these…’ Donald Trump Insults Our Allies
May 26, 2017
Trump made wild accusations of trade violations against Canada
Trump on Canada: “They have been very good about taking advantage of us through NAFTA”
Trump on Canada: “Canada, what they’ve done to our dairy farm workers is a disgrace. It’s a disgrace.” [Trump remarks at signing of memorandum on foreign steel, Washington DC, 4/20/2017]
He also took a thinly veiled swipe at Canada’s openness to accepting refugees
Trump on Canada: “It is heading in a different direction than you might love or I might love, but we’ll see what happens.”
Trump demanded the dissolution of the European Union (one of Putin’s top priorities)
Trump on EU: “People, countries want their own identity and the UK wanted its own identity”
Trump on EU: “It looks like it’s on its way [to dissolving]…I could certainly see it happening. I could see things happening in Germany.” [Press conference, Trump Turnberry, Scotland, 6/24/16]
Trump on EU: “We have a chance to even go bigger and better if they get weaker.” [On the Record, FOX News, 5/7/12]
Evidently unfamiliar with history, Trump decried France as disloyal to the United States
Trump on France: “I wouldn’t go to France because France is no longer France.” [Trump News Conference, Miami FL, 7/27/16]
Trump on France: “France has to be the worst partner that this country has ever had…[They have been] a very disloyal partner to the United States and virtually anybody else they deal with.” [FOX News Sunday, 10/31/99]
Trump on France: “They are a very disloyal group in terms of their government and I think they have to be taught respect.”
Trump has lobbed absurd insults at Germany’s Angela Merkel
Trump on Merkel: [Angela Merkel] is somebody I had a great deal of respect for, I have lost all respect.” [FOX Business, 3/22/16]
Trump on Merkel: “Germany’s being destroyed by Merkel’s naivete or worse.”
Trump on Merkel: “I was always a big fan of Merkel from Germany. I’m not a fan anymore.” [Hannity. FOX News, 10/20/15]
Trump accused Japan of “screwing us” and declared himself “not a huge fan”
Trump on Japan: “I’m not a huge fan of Japan.” [Larry King Live, CNN, 5/17/05]
Trump on Japan self-defense pact: “[The self-defense pact is] a pretty one-sided agreement [and] a real problem.”
Trump on Japan: “Their openly screwing us is a disgrace. Why aren't they paying us? The Japanese cajole us, they bow to us, they tell us how great we are and then they pick our pockets. We're losing hundreds of billions of dollars a year while they laugh at our stupidity.” [Playboy, 3/1/90]
Trump on Japan: “Whatever Japan wants, do the opposite.” [St. Petersburg Times, 11/19/87]
Trump jumped for joy at Brexit and bragged about how he’d make a profit from the economic crash it was predicted to cause
Trump on Brexit: “I think it's a great thing that's happened. It's an amazing vote, very historic.”
Trump on UK: “The fact that the pound is going down, which I think it probably will, more business will come into the UK. I'm not talking about for me. I have a lot of property here, but, more business will come in.” [Trump Press Availability, Aberdeen, Scotland, 6/25/16]
Trump on UK: “I don't want to have a plummeting pound, but if it does plummet I do well, and if it does well, I do well. I do well in either case. That's what I do. I do well.” [Trump Press Availability, Aberdeen, Scotland, 6/25/16]
He also feuded with then-Prime Minister David Cameron, partly over Trump’s hatred for wind turbines
Trump on David Cameron: “It looks like we are not going to have a good relationship. I hope to have a good relationship with him but it sounds like he is not willing to address the problem either. People can pretend like it is not existing. But take a look at London, certain sections of some cities throughout the world. It is a disaster. The police want nothing to do with it. It is as bad as it gets.” [Good Morning Britain, ITV, 5/16/16]
Trump on David Cameron: “Is PM Cameron a dummy? With monumental cuts in UK spending, how come he continues to spend billions of pounds … on ruining Scotland’s beauty with ugly & costly wind turbines?”