European Union Council President Donald Tusk is deriding the actions of the United States under President Donald Trump as "capricious," noting: "Someone could even think 'with friends like that, who needs enemies?'"

As trans-Atlantic problems mount, Tusk is leading an EU summit Wednesday night to address the outstanding issues with the Trump administration which center on Washington pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal and the threat to impose punitive trade sanctions on the 28-nation EU.

Listing the traditional problems facing Europe, ranging from the expanding power of China to the belligerence of Russia, Tusk said: "We are witnessing today a new phenomenon, the capricious assertiveness of the American administration.