Juncker: We’ll Need To Teach Trump About Europe

The President of the European Commission, Jean Claude Juncker, has unleashed a mean-spirited assault on President-elect Donald Trump, claiming that Mr. Trump didn’t know about Europe and that it would waste two years while he learned.

Mr. Juncker, who was recently devastated by the British vote to leave his failing European Union, was quoted after speaking to students at a conference, where he said: “The election of Trump poses the risk of upsetting intercontinental relations in their foundation and in their structure”.

 

He mentioned what he called the “pernicious” consequences of President-elect Trump’s statements on security policy, while also insulting the new U.S. President’s knowledge of Europe despite Mr. Trump’s long-standing investments and numerous visits to the continent over the past few decades.

“We will need to teach the president-elect what Europe is and how it works,” Mr. Juncker said, insulting Americans across the board by claiming they have no interest in Europe as a continent.

In fact, it is because of the policies of the European Union and leaders like Angela Merkel in Germany that many people opted to vote for Donald Trump.

The Brexit victory over Brussels bureaucracy and super-government, as well as Mrs. Merkel’s open border migrant policy is known to have resonated widely across the United States, leading to the populist backlash embodied in the defeat of Hillary Clinton.

“My honest opinion? I think we will waste two years before Mr Trump tours the world he does not know,” Mr. Juncker churlishly claimed.

Earlier on Friday the European Union’s Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstrom poured cold water on the idea that the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) – the corporatist deal between the U.S. and the European Union – would ever be completed under a Trump presidency.

TTIP was a key policy of both President Obama and Secretary Clinton, but has been roundly rejected populations across the European Union’s member states.