May: Trump told me to sue EU over Brexit
In the midst of a political crisis at home over Britain’s impending exit from the European Union, Prime Minister Theresa May revealed Sunday that Donald Trump gave her this piece of advice: Sue the EU, don’t negotiate.
A bemused May turned him down.
Trump told reporters Friday that he had given May advice about how to deal with the EU that she found too “brutal.” Asked in a BBC interview Sunday what that was, May responded with an amused expression: “He told me I should sue the EU. Not go into negotiation, sue them.”
With a laugh, she added: “Actually, no. We’re going into negotiations with them.”
In an interview with The Sun newspaper published Thursday — just as May was hosting Trump at a black-tie dinner — Trump said the British leader’s approach likely “killed” chances of a freetrade deal with the United States.
He said he had told May how to conduct Brexit negotiations, “but she didn’t listen to me.”
He also praised May’s rival, Boris Johnson, who quit last week as foreign secretary to protest May’s Brexit plans. Trump claimed Johnson would make a “great prime minister.”
The comments couldn’t have come at a worse time for the British prime minister, who is facing a crisis over Brexit from within her own ranks.
Her Conservative government is deeply split between supporters of a clean break with the EU and those who want to keep close ties with the bloc, Britain’s biggest trading partner.
The U.S. president later apologized and sought to soften the blow, telling reporters at a joint news conference Friday that May is an “incredible woman” who is “doing a fantastic job” as prime minister.
Asked to rate U.S.-U.K. relations, Trump called them the “highest level of special.” He added it was up to May how to handle Brexit, as long as the U.S. “can trade and we don’t have any restrictions” on commerce with the United Kingdom.
On Sunday, May said that as well as telling her to “sue” the EU, Trump also suggested not walking away from the negotiations.
May didn’t elaborate, and it wasn’t clear what grounds Britain would have to sue the EU.
But Trump has made clear his animosity toward the EU, aggressively criticizing his European NATO allies for taking advantage of the U.S. on trade and defense spending. In a CBS interview Saturday, he called the EU a trade “foe.”
May’s government has just published its long-awaited Brexit plans, which propose to keep Britain and the EU in a free market for goods, with a more distant relationship for services. That has infuriated fervent Brexit supporters.