Former EU Council chief Donald Tusk took a shot (pun intended) at Donald Trump by pretending to point a gun into the back of the president before tweeting the image today.
The ex-European Council boss made the gesture outside the NATO summit in London yesterday.
As Trump stood in front of him, Tusk pointed two fingers at his back so his hand mimicked a gun.
Germany’s Angela Merkel is looking on in the picture, although it’s unclear if her look is one of “what are you doing?” or “shoot.”
He then tweeted a picture of the prank from his personal account to his 6,800 followers with a message of transatlantic unity.
Alongside the image Tusk wrote: “Despite seasonal turbulences our transatlantic friendship must last #Trump #NATO.”
Despite seasonal turbulences our transatlantic friendship must last #Trump [1] #NATO [2] pic.twitter.com/s8av9gr6eZ [3]
— Donald Tusk (@donaldtuskEPP) December 5, 2019 [4]
Tusk, who was head of the European Council from 2014 until last month, now leads the center-right European People’s Party.
Trump seemed unaware of Tusk’s gesture and as of this afternoon has not tweeted about his EU counterpart’s post, which was the second time the president was mocked by a world leader at the summit.
Trump doesn’t take kindly to being made fun of. A quartet of leaders at the NATO summit — Emmanuel Macron, Justin Trudeau, Boris Johnson and Mark Rutte (plus Princess Anne) — were caught on video at a Buckingham Palace reception on Tuesday evening apparently having a laugh about Trump’s impromptu news conferences and disregard for the day’s scheduling.
In response, Trump branded Trudeau “two-faced,” claiming that the Canadian prime minister was upset at U.S. demands for his government to up its defense budget. “I called him out on that, and I’m sure he wasn’t happy about it, but that’s the way it is,” said Trump, who also canceled his post-summit press conference.
Last week Tusk branded Trump as possibly the greatest challenge for the European Union in a German newspaper column.
He wrote in Die Zeit: “For the first time in history, there is an American president who is openly against a united Europe. He supports Brexit and prays for the breakup of the Union.”