May failed to take my advice, claims Trump
LONDON: United States President Donald Trump directly criticised United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit strategy, saying her proposals had probably killed off hope of a US trade deal and that she had failed to take his advice on how to negotiate with the European Union.
In an interview with the Rupert Murdoch-owned Sun newspaper published just hours before he was due to have lunch with May and tea with Queen Elizabeth, Trump chided the “very unfortunate” results of May’s Brexit negotiation.
“If they do a deal like that, we would be dealing with the EU instead of dealing with the UK, so it will probably kill the deal,” Trump told The Sun in an interview published yesterday.
“I would have done it much differently,” he told the Sun, which urged its readers to back Brexit before a referendum in June 2016. “I actually told Theresa May how to do it, but she didn’t listen to me.”
When asked about Trump’s comments, May’s spokesman said she was looking forward to sitting down with Trump to talk him through the negotiating stance.
Britain is preparing to leave the EU on March 29 next year.
After the story was published, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the president “likes and respects Prime Minister May very much”, adding that he said in the interview she “is a very good person” and that he “never said anything bad about her”.