BERLIN - While meeting with European leaders in Brussels on Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump said "the Germans are bad, very bad" in a way to criticize the German trade surplus, according to the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel.
Trump's meeting with President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and President of the European Council Donald Tusk on Thursday morning was followed by a larger, closed-door meeting with European leaders.
"Look at the millions of cars that they are selling in the USA. Horrible. We will stop that," Trump said at the meeting, according to Der Spiegel.
The report says as a reduction of the U.S. trade deficit is a priority of Trump, the U.S. president has blamed German trade surplus as a contributing factor and has pledged to "stop" German car sales to the U.S.
It says that is also in light of the "massive amounts of money" Trump feels Germany owes to NATO.
In January, Trump threatened to impose a 35 percent tax on German auto imports, saying "I would tell BMW that if you are building a factory in Mexico and plan to sell cars in the USA, without a 35 percent tax, then you can forget that."
However, Trump's criticism against Germany was rejected by Juncker, who sided with Germany. According to participants of the meeting, Juncker defended the concept of free trade in a friendly but firm manner. (Xinhua)