Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses delegates at the end of the last day of the Republican National Convention | Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images | Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump says EU exists to compete with US Presidential hopeful hits out at EU, WTO and NATO.

The European Union was created to “beat the United States when it comes to making money,” according to Donald Trump.

Speaking to NBC News, Trump said “the reason that [the EU] got together was like a consortium so that it could compete with the United States.”

The anti-European statements come after the Republican presidential nominee openly praised the Brexit result, including in a press conference the day after the referendum.

Trump also used the interview to defended his recent attacks on NATO, saying that members of the organization needed to pay more to the United States in order for Washington to meet its treaty obligations of mutual defense.

Trump also called both the World Trade Organization and North American Free Trade Agreement “disasters.”

The Republican nominee said his call to ban from entering the U.S. people from “any nation that has been compromised by terrorism” was not a partial retraction of his planned ban on Muslims but an "expansion" of that idea.