WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump suggested on Monday he would cut off foreign aid to Pakistan, accusing Islamabad of harboring violent extremists and lying about it.

“The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools,” Trump said in his first tweet of 2018.

“They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!”

Last week, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration was seriously weighing whether to withhold $255 million in already delayed aid to Islamabad over its failure to better crack down on terror groups in Pakistan.

US-Pakistani ties have taken a nosedive under Trump, who in August declared that “Pakistan often gives safe haven to agents of chaos, violence, and terror.”

Earlier this month, Trump had already hinted that he may cut off the aid for good.

“We make massive payments every year to Pakistan. They have to help,” he said in unveiling his national security strategy.

The US president’s latest tweet follows in the aftermath of an increasingly tense back-and-forth between Washington and Islamabad after Trump announced the administration’s latest national security strategy.

During the announcement, the US president was quick to remind Pakistan of its obligation toward helping America because it receives “massive payments” from Washington every year.

“We have made clear to Pakistan that while we desire continued partnership, we must see decisive action against terrorist groups operating on their territory. And we make massive payments every year to Pakistan. They have to help,” the US president said.

In December 2017, the Pentagon also informed the US Congress that it would take “unilateral steps” in areas of divergence with Pakistan while expanding cooperation between the two countries where their interests converge.

As the year came to an end, US Vice President Mike Pence in a surprise visit to Afghanistan’s Bagram air base warned that Trump has now “put Pakistan on notice” in what is the harshest US warning to Islamabad since the beginning of the Afghan war over 16 years ago.

Hitting back at the US, the Foreign Office warned against a “malicious campaign” being used to trivialize Pakistan’s achievements in the war against terrorism, and noted that “allies do not put each other on notice.”

The FO maintained that recent US statements are “at variance with the extensive conversations we (Islamabad) have had with the US administration”. — Agencies