Revealed: advice from Trump that May ignored
US president urged PM to drive a hard bargain when brokering Brexit deal, former aide discloses
DONALD TRUMP urged Theresa May to be “brutal” and “tough” in Brexit negotiations, but she ignored his advice to “overshoot” her true targets.
The US president said he had given Mrs May his personal tips on how to get deals done and that it was not too late to “do what I suggested to her”.
He refused to specify what the advice was, but in an interview with The Daily Telegraph his former adviser, Steve Bannon, reveals that Mr Trump told her to demand far more than she ever expected to get, and to maintain “momentum” because “if it drags out the deal doesn’t get done”.
The comments came on the second day of Mr Trump’s working visit to Britain as tried to walk back comments that Mrs May Brexit approach would “kill” the chance of a trade deal with the US.
He said it was “absolutely” possible to do a trade deal and that Brexit was an “incredible opportunity” for both nations.
Yesterday he also visited the Queen at Windsor Castle, while thousands of people assembled in London and Glasgow to protest at his presence. Melania Trump, the First Lady, spent the morning with Mrs May’s husband, Philip.
After a three-hour meeting at Chequers, Mrs May had to endure an uncomfortable, open-air press confer- ence with Mr Trump, during which the President at times cast doubt on Brexit by saying Britain would “perhaps” leave the EU. His comment prompted Mrs May to insist that Britain would be leaving the EU. She said: “I heard the turn of phrase that the president used earlier, but let me be very clear about this: we will be leaving the European Union, and we are leaving on the 29th of March, 2019.” Mr Trump said Mrs May could not now walk away from negotiations with Brussels “because if she walks away she’s stuck”.
In a typically freewheeling performance after his meeting with Mrs May, the US president described America’s relationship with Britain as “the highest level of special” and insisted Mrs May was a “tough negotiator”. He later apologised to her over his interview with The Sun in which he suggested her Brexit proposal was not what the British people voted for. He branded parts of the interview “fake news”, despite The Sun posting an audio recording of his comments online.
Throughout the 50-minute press conference Mr Trump repeatedly referred to advice he had given the Prime Minister on how to conduct the Brexit negotiations, saying: “I gave her a suggestion and I think maybe she found it too brutal.” But he stopped short of revealing what the advice was.
Mr Bannon told The Telegraph that president Trump had offered Mrs May some of the suggestions contained in his book The Art of the Deal, which suggests: “Overshoot your target, be tough and get on with it.”
It was at Windsor where Mr Trump’s inexperience of state visits showed when he breached royal etiquette by walking in front of the monarch while inspecting a guard of honour.