Taormina, Italy — US President Donald Trump launched a salvo against German car exports to the US, officials confirmed on Friday, in the latest sign of simmering transatlantic trade tensions. Speaking after German media reported Trump as having described the Germans as "bad, very bad", European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker tried to play down the latest spat to erupt since Trump came to power pursuing a protectionist agenda. Suggesting the comment attributed to Trump had been mistranslated, Juncker confirmed that Trump had raised Germany’s large trade surplus with the US in the automobile sector during trade talks in Brussels on Thursday. "I don’t want to comment but I have to," said the head of the EU executive, who is in overall charge of the giant economic bloc’s trading relationship with the rest of the world. "It is not true the president was aggressive in his approach. This a translation problem," he said in Italy at the G7 summit attended by Trump, German Chancello...
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