STOP COMPLAINING! EU told to work with Trump or BE QUIET - Rutte sends Brussels warning
THE EU has been ordered to stop complaining about Donald Trump and work with the US President by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
Trump and Rutte discuss negotiating a 'good' US-EU trade deal
The Dutch leader demanded that Brussels bosses be “direct” and “not beg or give lessons” to the Republican firebrand leader in the fiery rant. Mr Rutte’s intervention comes as he urged the EU to be “less naive and more realistic” about its foreign policy and not to be afraid to exercise power during a lecture in Zurich. He said: “Donald Trump has been democratically elected. And there is the democratic possibility that he will be re-elected.
“So let’s stop complaining about Trump and start working with him and take advantage of his presence, for example, in matters such as the relationship with China.”
Speaking about how to handle Mr Trump, he said: “We must be direct and not beg or give lessons, because that does not work with him.
“Trump likes to negotiate and that's what he understands.”
Mr Rutte also laid in to the EU urging it to get tougher on sanctions against other countries, claiming the bloc’s “action lacks teeth”.
Let’s stop complaining about Trump and start working with him
In a speech during a series of lectures to honour a famous speech by Winston Churchill in the Swiss city in 1946, he said: “The EU needs a reality check, power is not a dirty word”.
He called for the “United States of Europe” to tackle the bloc’s post-war plight.
The Dutch prime minister also called for realism, claiming EU nations are “played off each other” and questioned why numerous sanctions from the US against the likes of China, Iran and Turkey have so much more impact.
He added: “We have to realise we are not toothless, we have our means of power as the EU.
“Our market power, for example, is unrivalled and I believe we should not be afraid to use it to achieve our goals and protect our vital interests as the EU.”
Additional reporting by Maria Ortega