Donald Tusk held his finger gun to Donald Trump’s back
Former EU Council chief Donald Tusk has taken a swipe at Donald Trump by posting a photo of him pretending to point a gun into the US President’s back.
The controversial image was accompanied with the words ‘despite seasonal turbulences our transatlantic friendship must last.’
The tweet by Tusk, who stepped down from his EU role last week, comes as relations between Trump and fellow world leaders plummet to a new low.
He was mocked by Canada’s Justin Trudeau and France’s Emmanuel Macron at the Nato summit in the UK.
Affronted, Trump called Trudeau ‘two-faced’ before he headed home refusing to do any more scheduled press conferences.
Despite seasonal turbulences our transatlantic friendship must last #Trump #NATO pic.twitter.com/s8av9gr6eZ
— Donald Tusk (@donaldtuskEPP) December 5, 2019
Tusk has now appeared to add to the ridicule by posting the picture online, which was taken at last year’s G7 meeting in Canada.
The two Donalds had a fractious relationship with Trump openly clashing with the bloc over Iran, trade and climate change.
A few months ago, Tusk used a United Nations speech to call the President’s views ‘false and dangerous.’
Last year he called the White House administration ‘capricious’ adding: ‘Looking at the latest decisions of President Trump, some could even think “with friends like that, who needs enemies?”
And in a dig last week, he said that Trump was the greatest challenge facing the EU.
He wrote in German newspaper Die Zeit: ‘For the first time in history, there is an American president who is openly against a united Europe.
‘He supports Brexit and prays for the breakup of the union.’
Germany’s Angela Merkel was seen looking in on the picture but her reaction to the gun gesture is unknown.
Trump seemed unaware of the gesture in the picture and, for now, has yet to respond.
This week’s Nato summit was meant to re-set tense relations within the 70-year-old military alliance.
Emmanuel Macron had called the group ‘brain dead’ and complained of a lack of US leadership.
His comments were prompted by Turkey’s offensive against the Kurds of northern Syria – a group who are key Western allies in the fight against so-called Islamic State.
Trump effectively gave the green light to the Turkish incursion and called Macron’s criticism ‘very, very nasty.’
Later than day, Trudeau and Macron were joined in a circle by Boris Johnson and talk appeared to turn to Trump.
His name was not mentioned explicitly but Johnson can be heard saying to Macron ‘Is that why you were late?’
Trudeau intervenes, saying: ‘He was late because he takes a 40-minute press conference off the top.
Macron can then be seen gesturing animatedly and soon after Trudeau goes on to say: ‘You just watched his team’s jaws drop to the floor.’
When questioned about the sniping, Trump said Trudeau was angry because the US had confronted Canada over the amount they pay into Nato.
He added: ‘He’s two-faced.
‘With Trudeau, he’s a nice guy. I find him to be a nice guy, but the truth is I called him out on the fact that he’s not paying two per cent and I guess he’s not very happy it.’
Trump then boarded Marine One and tweeted that he would leave without holding a scheduled press conference, bringing an acrimonious end to the summit.