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Trump says Washington 'ripped off' by allies

The US leader cited the European Union as an example, stressing that the union's relations with the United States are unfair, because Washington is losing about $300 billion from trade imbalances

NEW YORK, April 25. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump has said that Washington's friends and allies, to whom it provides military and financial assistance, have "ripped off" his country, which, in his opinion, should not be responsible for protecting everyone.

"We're being ripped off by everybody in the world, other countries, other people, other militaries, are ripping us off. We're protecting countries for no money or for very minimal money, and that wasn't supposed to happen. We're not supposed to be protecting everybody. We're supposed to be, number one, taking care of ourself, and number two, helping people when we can, helping outside people and outside countries where we can. But we've been ripped off by levels that you've never seen," Trump told Time magazine in an interview.

He cited the European Union as an example, stressing that the union's relations with the United States are unfair, because Washington is losing about $300 billion from trade imbalances.

"Our friendly countries, in many cases, are worse than our enemies," he added.

He also blasted China, which, in his opinion, benefits from "hundreds of billions of dollars of losses" the US suffers in mutual trade. Trump again blamed his predecessor Joe Biden for the financial losses Washington has incurred, citing the former president's lackluster foreign policy.

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