Donald Trump has accused the European Central Bank (ECB) of unfairly manipulating the euro, further raising the stakes for Washington in its trade and diplomatic disputes around the world.
The US president suggested in a tweet that comments by Mario Draghi, the head of the ECB, had triggered an immediate slide in the value of the euro versus the dollar, “making it unfairly easier for them to compete against the USA”.
Reopening a spat over transatlantic trade with the EU that has repeatedly flared up during Trump’s presidency, he warned Brussels it had been “getting away with this for years, along with China and others”.
Trump’s comments come after Draghi used one of his last major speeches before stepping down as ECB president to say the central bank could act to loosen monetary policy – cutting interest rates or revamping its quantitative easing bond-buying programme – to stimulate the eurozone economy.