EU leaders launch scathing attack on Donald Trump

Theresa May’s bid to be the EU’s link with President Trump hit turbulence today as European Union leaders angrily hit out at the president at a summit in Malta.

Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said Mr Trump did not seem to understand “the detail” of how the EU worked.

In a withering putdown he said he did not feel “threatened” by Mr Trump because “the new administration does not know the EU in detail, but in the European Union details matter”.

Austrian leader Christian Kern said the EU could respond to Mr Trump’s hostile attitude by binding closer together as a bloc.

“It’s not a threat, it could be a catalyst for a strong, more united Europe,” he said. “It is an alarm call to see if we are the right track.”

Theresa May began her mission to become the go-between by appealing to the other 27 leaders to spend more money on defence in order to secure future backing for Nato from Mr Trump.

However, her appeal was rebuffed by Swedish deputy prime minister Margot Wallstrom whose country is not in Nato.

Ms Wallstrom told BBC radio: “No I don’t think that that is in the making at the moment.”

Winning Mr Trump’s promise of “100 per cent” backing for Nato was a key success in Mrs May’s visit to Washington, but in return she promised to pass on his concern that most EU countries are not paying their fair share of military spending.

The Prime Minister did not speak to the press as she arrived at the Grandmaster’s Palace in Valletta.

She was only invited to the first part of the summit as the other 27 EU nations planned to hold talks on the future of the EU after Brexit without her.