Donald Trump claimed on Monday that EU leaders have “jokingly” referred to him as “the president of Europe”.
“They [EU leaders] jokingly call me the president of Europe,” the US president told reporters in the Oval Office. “They call me the president of Europe. Which is an honour. I like Europe. And I like those people. They’re good people. They’re great leaders.”
Trump’s comments come a week after seven European leaders – including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen – joined Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for talks with Trump in Washington, in a bid to persuade him to continue providing diplomatic and military support for Kyiv in its war against Russia.
The visit to the White House came just days after Trump alarmed EU officials by holding a hastily arranged summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska – his first encounter with the Kremlin leader since 2019.
“And we’ve never had a case where seven plus really 28, essentially 35, 38 countries were represented here the other day – 38 European and other countries were represented,” Trump said.
In addition to von der Leyen, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Friedrich Merz, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Finland’s Alexander Stubb, the UK’s Keir Starmer, and NATO Secretary General Marke Rutte accompanied Zelenskyy on his trip to the US.
The European Commission declined to comment.
(aw)
