Donald Trump felt misled by aides over the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats for the Salisbury spy poisoning and pushed back on Theresa May’s demands to act, The Washington Post has reported.
The paper said the US president was left furious after discovering that Germany and France had only sent home a handful of Russians over the incident.
Aides reportedly had to explain that the US was matching the European Union’s entire number of expulsions rather than that of major EU countries.
Mr Trump was still left fuming, with one source saying that “a lot of curse words” were used, according to The Washington Post.
The president was also said to have pushed back on Mrs May’s call for Russian expulsions after the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
“Why are you asking me to do this?” he reportedly told the Prime Minister. “What’s Germany going to do? What about France?”
The reports cast doubt over Mr Trump’s commitment to hold a firm line against Russia over the Salisbury attack.
East 2 West
Mrs May led a diplomatic blitz to get allies in the West to expel Russian diplomats after she accused the Kremlin of being behind the attack.
America expelled 60 Russian diplomats who they said were really spies – far exceeding Britain, which expelled 23 Russians, and France and Germany, who each kicked out four.
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According to The Washington Post, Mr Trump initially said “we’ll match their numbers”, adding: “We’re not taking the lead. We’re matching.”
But the president appeared to think he was matching individual European nations rather than the EU as a whole, leading to a backlash when the news triggered headlines.
“But at the same time, he’d still like to have a good relationship with them. But that’s going to be determined by whether or not Russia decides if they want to be a better actor in this process or not.”