Will I run for office again? Everybody wants me to… and so I fully intend to
it is Brexit, it is what it was, but we’re leaving certain things.”’ ‘Do you believe that?’ ‘Well, honestly it’s not for me to say.’ ‘Most people don’t believe it.’ ‘Well, yeah, I know, but…’ ‘They think it doesn’t allow for America to actually trade.’
‘Well, that would be bad. I mean look, I think it’s worse for the UK than it is for us because we’re doing very well, we’re having the best numbers we’ve ever had as a country – best employment numbers, best GDP numbers.’
I interjected: ‘And if Britain was free to do a genuine free trade deal…’
He said: ‘We would make a tremendously big deal.’
‘People say, “Donald Trump, he wants to put America first, we’re not going to get a great deal.” What is the incentive for America to do a great deal with the UK?’
‘We would make a great deal with the United Kingdom because they have product that we like. They have a lot of great product. They make phenomenal things, you know, and they have different names – you can say England, you can say UK, you can say United Kingdom, Great Britain. I always say, “Which one do you prefer? Great Britain?”’
‘You know Great Britain and the United Kingdom aren’t exactly the same thing?’
‘Right, yeah. You know I know. The fact is Britain makes great product, it makes great things. Even their farm product is so fantastic.’
Trump revealed at the press conference he had privately suggested that Mrs May activate a ‘brutal option’ to bring the EU to heel. I asked what it was. ‘Well, I recommended her something, I gave her an option. I’d rather not tell you what that option is but I think she might. I think it would’ve been great but it’s not too late for her to do that necessarily.’
MAY MUST HAVE A ‘CARVE OUT’ TO SECURE US TRADE DEAL
‘CAN you look me in the eye, Mr President, and say there will be a great trade deal if we get this damn Brexit thing right?
‘Oh, I think we’re going to have a great trade deal, I’ve really no doubt about it. We’re going to get it. I said [to Theresa May], “Make sure you have a carve out, you have to have a carve out” – where no matter what happens they have the right to make a deal with the US.
‘That’s the only thing I told [Theresa], you have to have the right to do it. You can’t be shut out because we’re much bigger than the European Union, we’re more important from that standpoint.’
‘And has Mrs May looked you in the eye and said, “We will get there?”’
‘Well, she feels she’s going to be able to make a deal, yeah.’
THE ‘SAD’ IMPACT ON EUROPE OF MASS IMMIGRATION
AT THE press conference, Trump said he feared damage to Europe’s ‘culture’ from mass immigration. He elaborated on this with me.
‘I said Brexit was going to happen for a specific reason: immigration. I think the people of the UK want to have who they want in their country and I think what’s happening all over Europe is very sad.
‘On a humanitarian basis, you’ve got to do something and yet it is changing Europe. It’s seriously changing Europe. You take a look at what’s happened in Paris, you take a look at what’s happened in London. It’s changing Europe and I don’t mean in a positive way.’ As we spoke, over 100,000 anti-Trump protesters were marching through the streets of London.
‘Some of them are protesting in my favour, you know that?’ he insisted. ‘There are many, many protests in my favour.’ Hmm… I must have missed those.
DEALING WITH LITTLE ROCKET MAN AND RUTHLESS PUTIN
TOMORROW, Trump will attend his first summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, in Finland. It comes a few weeks after his extraordinary meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
‘Is the Trump doctrine now to get in a room and try to do deals with people who have been perceived as the enemy?’ I asked.
‘I’d like to see peace. Most people said, “On day one we’re going to be at war with Trump as president.” Well, here it is – we’re getting rid of wars. We’re getting out of wars.’ ‘Can you trust Kim Jong-un?’ ‘In the last nine months, there have been no missiles tests, no nuclear tests, no nothing.’ ‘Did you like him?’ ‘I get along with him great, yeah. He’s very smart, great personality, funny and tough, good negotiator.’
‘He’s a ruthless dictator.’
‘Sure he is, he’s ruthless. Plenty of the people that I deal with are pretty ruthless people.’ ‘Is Putin one of those?’ ‘I can’t tell you that, I assume he probably is. Look, if we can get along with Russia that’s a good thing. I don’t know him.
‘I met him a couple of times, I met him at the G20. I think we could probably get along very well.
‘But for the United States, and frankly the UK and other places, to get along with Russia and China and all of these other places…
‘Piers that’s a really good thing.’
THE US’S MOST CONTENTIOUS ISSUE… ABORTION
TRUMP has flip-flopped over abortion. It’s a highly contentious issue in America and set to be more so now he is appointing a new conservative justice to the Supreme Court – a decision which could lead to abortion being made illegal again.
‘Well, look, I’m a conservative as you know,’ he said. ‘I have my views but I’ve been told it’s truly best not to talk about it (the nominee process). That’s a little bit of an interesting stance but that’s the right thing to do now.’
‘Do you understand why women are concerned?’
‘I do understand but I also understand that, you know, that’s a 50/50 question in the country.’ In fact, two-thirds of Americans recently polled do not want to see the legalisation of abortion reversed, though half do want some restrictions.
‘Someday there could be a vote,’ said Trump. ‘There’s also a very good chance there won’t be a vote.’
HIS GRATITUDE TO HARRY OVER MEGHAN’S FATHER LAST month, Meghan Markle’s father Thomas, who hates Trump, told me that Prince Harry had urged him in a phone call to ‘give Trump a chance’.
I told the president this and he looked thrilled. ‘That’s good!’ ‘Do you like Harry?’ ‘Yeah, I like Harry. I’ve never met him but I’ve always liked Harry. I like the whole family to be honest, they have a good energy.’ CONFIRMED: HE’LL RUN FOR A SECOND TERM IN 2020
THERE has been lots of rampant speculation as to whether Trump will run for president again. It was time to get a definitive answer.
‘Is there any doubt you’ll run again in 2020?’
‘Well, you never know what hap“No, pens with health and other things…’ ‘You look fit.’ ‘I feel good.’ ‘I saw your menu for tonight – pretty healthy stuff. But 2020, are you going to run?’
‘Well, I fully intend to. It seems like everybody wants me to.’
I suspect ‘everybody’ is bordering on fake news. But there it was – official confirmation that Donald Trump will run again.
HIS LOVE OF TWITTER IN THE FIGHT AGAINST FAKE NEWS
LOVE him or loathe him, Trump has transformed modern presidential communication, particularly through Twitter.
‘Did you ever think you, at 72, would be the most skilled exponent of Twitter in the world?’
‘I just find it’s a modern-day form of communication. I’ll see something where somebody says something wrong or says something right and, rather than sitting around doing nothing, I’ll be able to put out something. I can combat that fake news because I have so many followers. You get the word out, you can really protect yourself from the lies.’
After the interview, I presented Trump with a gift – a kilt made from his family’s tartan, MacLeod. He seemed genuinely moved by it.
NOW GET OFF MY PLANE, PIERS!
‘GREAT to see you,’ Trump said, as we shook hands again. ‘Now get off my plane – we’re late!’
The next morning, I spotted a Facebook post by my brother-inlaw Patrick, a former army colonel who taught Princes William and Harry at Sandhurst. ‘Good old Air Force One. Apparently a direct cause of my flight from Germany being delayed by over three hours. It’s 1am and I’m still on the ground.’ Oh dear. I haven’t had the heart to tell him it was my fault yet.
Piers Morgan’s interview with Donald Trump is on ITV’s Good Morning Britain tomorrow from 6am, and again on ITV at 10.40pm.