Donald Trump says US-Russia relations ‘never worse’ ahead of Helsinki meeting with Putin | City A.M.

US President Donald Trump said today that US relations with Russia have “never been worse” ahead of his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki today.

In a tweet this morning Trump blamed poor US-Russia relations on “many years of US foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!”- referring to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

Read more: Trump warns new Brexit proposals make a UK-US trade deal less likely

On Friday the US Justice Department announced indictments against 12 Russian citizens for an alleged “sustained effort” to hack Democratic Party emails and computer networks.

All 12 are members of the GRU, a Russian military intelligence agency.

In an interview yesterday with CBS News Trump was asked to describe the US’s biggest foes – and the first on the list was the EU – before going on to name Russia and China.

“I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade. Now you wouldn’t think of the European Union but they’re a foe,” he said.

Read more: Trump claims Nato spending win, suggests Brexit “partially” reversed

This followed a NATO summit last week where Trump called on America’s European allies to increase their defence spending and reportedly threatened to “do our own thing” if his demands were not met.

In a tweet this morning Trump hailed the summit as a success and blamed the media for perceptions that the NATO alliance was under strain.

Received many calls from leaders of NATO countries thanking me for helping to bring them together and to get them focused on financial obligations, both present & future. We had a truly great Summit that was inaccurately covered by much of the media. NATO is now strong & rich!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 16, 2018