Trump: Brexit Negotiation Went ‘Badly’, PM May ‘Didn’t Listen’ to My Advice

Trump Varadkar
Getty Images
Oliver JJ Lane

As the deteriorating political situation in the United Kingdom makes headlines worldwide, U.S. President Donald Trump has made two separate sets of remarks on Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union in one day, lamenting Theresa May’s failure to heed his advice but praising the “unlimited” potential of a new trade deal with Britain.

The U.S. President took to Twitter on Thursday morning to talk up the future trade deal he hopes the U.S. will be able to strike with a newly liberated UK in the future, should it ever succeed in leaving the European Union.

Striking similar tones to those he and his ambassador to London have made recently about the enormous potential for a trade deal, Trump wrote that “The potential is unlimited” for a “large scale” trade deal between the two allied nations.

But more significant remarks came as the President held a photo call with Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar, who was visiting Washington to kick off St Patrick’s day celebrations. Speaking to journalists, the President revealed that he’d given advice to Theresa May on how to conduct negotiations but his words went unheeded.

Speaking after Brexit negotiations appear to have totally collapsed and as May faces losing control of her own Brexit process in London, Trump said: “I’m surprised at how badly it has all gone from a standpoint of negotiations, but I gave the Prime Minister my ideas of how to negotiate it, she didn’t listen to that and that’s fine but it could have been negotiated in a different manner.”

While the President’s prediction on Britain being able to resurrect its Brexit deal with the European Union before the end of the month deadline was “they’re not going to be able to do that”, he also said he hoped Brexit would be a success and that it would lead to a British-American trade deal, echoing his comments of earlier in the day.

Trump said: “I would like to see that whole situation with Brexit work out… we’re talking to them about trade, we can make a very big trade deal with the UK… it’s very sad to see what’s happening there.”

The President also invited Leo Varadakar to comment on the Brexit process, joking that maybe he shouldn’t do so as it could get the Irish leader in trouble. Nonetheless he obliged, repeating his often repeated talking point that Ireland’s main concern in Brexit is hardship in Northern Ireland, rather than his nation the Republic of Ireland — which it was revealed earlier this year would need a “mega-money” bailout from the European Union to survive the consequences of a full Brexit.

President Trump also took time to criticise the European Union as the slavishly europhile Varadakar looked on quietly, attacking the EU’s unwillingness to cooperate on trade. He said: “we’ve been talking about trade with the European Union, they have been very tough over the years.

“They were unwilling to negotiate with the Obama administration, and unwilling before that, to be honest, I’m not just blaming President Obama. But they’re willing to talk to us, and if they don’t talk to us we’re going to do something which will be quite severe, economically. We’re going to tariff a lot of their products coming in, they treat us very unfairly… for decades.”

Oliver JJ Lane is the editor of Breitbart London — Follow him on Twitter and Facebook

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.