Donald Trump blames 'US stupidity' for poor relations with Russia ahead of summit with Vladimir Putin

Donald Trump today blamed “US foolishness and stupidity” for relations with Russia that have “never been worse” — just hours before his first summit with Vladimir Putin.

The US president launched the startling attack on Washington, writing on Twitter ahead of the high-stakes meeting with the Russian leader in Finland.

“Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!” he wrote, referring to the special counsel inquiry into alleged Russian links to his presidential election campaign.

Mr Trump hit out just days after the US Department of Justice charged 12 alleged Russian intelligence officers with hacking Democratic officials in the 2016 US poll.

The agents are all said to be in the GRU military intelligence service, whose current or former members may have carried out the Wiltshire Novichok attacks, according to British and US sources who spoke to the New York Times.

Mr Trump is under pressure from Britain and other Western governments to raise the poisonings with Mr Putin, as well as the annexation of Crimea and Moscow’s propping up of Syrian tyrant Bashar al-Assad.

Mr Trump, however, was this morning continuing to blame his predecessor Barack Obama for failing to stop reported Russian efforts to sway the 2016 vote in Mr Trump’s favour.

“President Obama thought that Crooked Hillary was going to win the election, so when he was informed by the FBI about Russian Meddling, he said it couldn’t happen, was no big deal, & did NOTHING about it,” he claimed.

The Obama administration did, in fact, take action, including confronting Mr Putin in person as well as expelling nearly three dozen Russian diplomats who the US said were actually intelligence operatives, and announcing new sanctions.

Diplomats were on tenterhooks today about how the Helsinki talks would unfold after Mr Trump blazed his way through a Nato summit and a four-day visit to Britain.

The two leaders will first meet one-on-one in the Finnish presidential palace’s Gothic Hall, then continue their discussions with an expanded group of aides and over lunch in the Hall of Mirrors, once the emperor’s throne room.

In what appeared to be a message for the Kremlin, Mr Trump trumpeted that Nato is now “strong & rich” after he berated German chancellor Angela Merkel and many other European nations last week to increase their defence spending. He claimed they were now committing £34 billion more towards defence since he came to office.

Before leaving Scotland yesterday, he did an interview with CBS in which he branded the European Union an economic “foe”. He told the broadcaster: “I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade.”

Amid the growing global trade war sparked by Mr Trump slapping tariffs on Chinese, EU and other nations’ goods, European Council president Donald Tusk urged him, Mr Putin and China to work with Europe to avoid economic clashes, conflict and chaos.

Speaking at an EU-China summit in Beijing, Mr Tusk said: “We are all aware of the fact that the architecture of the world is changing before our very eyes and it is our common responsibility to make it a change for the better.”

Mr Trump made clear in an interview with Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain, that he wants a “great” post-Brexit trade deal with the UK but that he would fight to make it to America’s advantage.

“I’m going to try and top you, you’re going to try and top us,” he said.