Relations between the EU and US (like most aspects of the Trump administration) are off to a rocky start.
The US President has been critical of the bloc and a vocal supporter of Brexit.
Speaking to The Times shortly after his election victory he said, "I think Brexit is going to be a great thing ... I thought the UK was so smart in getting out."
He's also ruffled continental feathers by claiming that the euro is effectively an extension of Germany's old Deutsche Mark.
Monetary Matters
The man strongly-tipped to be the US's next ambassador to the EU is Ted Malloch - he's launched a fresh attack on the Union calling it a "failed" project.
"The Trump administration is steadily making it clear that the US is no longer interested in the old forms of European integration. In fact, it may be able to encourage a reversal of the EU’s accelerating drive to a socialist, protectionist, United States of Europe," he wrote in The Parliament Magazine.
"This movement should be seen for what it is. It is very harmful to US business, to US investment, to US security, and is categorised by over-regulation, low growth, high unemployment, and structural rigidity as its outcome. The US should therefore definitively encourage more bilateral trade with Europe but make firm its opposition to a federal Europe by saying a definite No to a single Euro government," he continued.
This approach would represent a radical shift in EU/US relations. He believes at this juncture that the dynamic of this relationship has to be re-examined and that the Union needs to be reformed or disbanded.
"Why are the Europeans and its institutions so ungrateful? The answer is European resentment of American power. Believe me, anti-Americanism is not an abstract idea in Europe, nor is it confined to leftists 'usual suspects'. It influences all of culture and policy-making in the EU," he added in the piece.
Greece
Yesterday he told a Greek news outlet that Greece should leave the euro - and that policymakers in Athens are considering a new currency linked to the dollar rather than EU currencies, "I know some Greek economists who have even gone to leading think tanks in the US to discuss this topic and the question of dollarisation," he told Ekathimerini.
Last month he spoke to the BBC and said, "The one thing I would do in 2017 is short the euro ... I think it is a currency that is not only in demise but has a real problem and could in fact collapse in the coming year, year and a half."
Peter Navarro is the head of Mr Trump's newly formed National Trade Council - he has also said that the euro is effectively a German currency and claimed that Merkel and Co. are manipulating the rest of the monetary union and benefiting from an undervalued currancy:
"A big obstacle to viewing TTIP as a bilateral deal is Germany, which continues to exploit other countries in the EU as well as the US with an ‘implicit Deutsche Mark’ that is grossly undervalued," he said.
Irish influence
Donald Trump's interview with Michael Gove for The Times (his first for a non-US publication after his election victory) suggested that his disdain for the EU may have grown out of dealings relating to his golf resort in Co Clare.
The feature interview states that his issue with Brussels, "springs, as so much of his world view does, from his experience as a businessman rather than any ideological preconception."
Trump told the British publication: "I own a big property in Ireland, magnificent property called Doonbeg. What happened is I went for an approval to do this massive, beautiful expansion ... I learnt a lot because they [the EU] were using environmental tricks to stop a project from being built.
"I found it to be a very unpleasant experience. To get the approvals from the EU would have taken years. I don’t think that’s good for a country like Ireland. So you know what I did? I said forget it, I’m not gonna build it."
