'What does Putin have on you?' Verhofstadt MOCKS Donald Trump on Twitter
EU heavyweight Guy Verhofstadt has mocked Donald Trump after posting a picture of Angela Merkel and world surrounding the US President at the G7 summit with the caption “Just tell us what Vladimir has on you. Maybe we can help.”
Angela Merkel's Office
Mr Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s Brexit representative as well as a former Prime Minister of Belgium, made two attempts at social media satire with his captions being retweeted by at least 4,000 Twitter accounts.
He was possibily inspired by the news that Mr Trump had left the summit, in the Canadian province of Quebec, early.
The picture in question, which was released by Mrs Merkel's office, features various world leaders stood around a seated Mr Trump, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel leaning over a table and looking at him intently.
Twitter
Twitter
In Mr Verhofstadt’s first effort, he tweeted the picture with the caption: “Just tell us what Vladimir has on you. Maybe we can help.”
This was a clear reference to the investigation into Russian hackers allegedly swaying the US election in Mr Trump’s favour.
Then less than an hour later, Mr Verhofstadt followed this up with another caption reading: “Donald, next time you tweet something stupid, we confiscate your phone, capisce?!”
Twitter users offered alternative captions of their own, as well as photoshopped versions of the same picture, including one of Mr Trump sat in a toy car for children.
GETTY
Now would be a good time for some adults to turn up in government somewhere
However, others were less impressed, with Chris Nichols posting: “Now would be a good time for some adults to turn up in government somewhere.
“Lacking in many places currently.”
Keith Holmes added: “Entertaining as your caption may be, how does this help, coming from a serious politician?”
And Demóstenes wrote: “Mr Verhofstadt, I can tweet that kind of things because I'm no one, but you have to stay classy.
“That's one of the sacrifices of public service.
“Do not worry, the nobodys of the EU will keep alive the trolling of Mr. Trump.”
The tweets come at the end of an extraordinary few days concluding with Mr Trump ruffling European feathers by pulling out of a joint G7 communique aimed at resolving the escalating trade dispute with the US and USA over the latter’s imposition of tariffs on imported steel and aluminium.
Mr Trump then unleashed a Twitter storm of his own by branding Canadian PM Justin Trudeau - the summit’s host – as “weak and dishonest” for criticising him over the tariffs issue.
Mr Trudeau’s advisers responded by saying Mr Trudeau had not said anything he had not said before, both publicly and in private to Mr Trump.