U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he looked forward to finalising a post-Brexit trade deal with Britain, marking an abrupt change from a newspaper interview when he said Prime Minister Theresa May‘s strategy would kill such an agreement.
In an interview the Sun newspaper, published just hours before the two leaders held talks, Mr. Trump chided the “very unfortunate” results of the Prime Minister’s proposals for Brexit and her negotiating tactics as Britain prepares to leaves the EU in March next year.
However, he later said Ms. May was doing a “fantastic job”.
“Once the Brexit process is concluded and perhaps the U.K. has left the EU, I don’t know what they’re going to do but whatever you do is OK with me, that’s your decision,” Mr. Trump told during a press conference with Ms. May in the garden of her official country residence Chequers.
“Whatever you do is OK with us, just make sure we can trade together, that’s all that matters.”
Last week at the same location, Ms. May finally won agreement for her Brexit plans from her Cabinet but within days, two senior Ministers had quit, departures which Mr. Trump said earlier in the week had left Britain in turmoil.
“If they do a deal like that, we would be dealing with the European Union instead of dealing with the U.K., so it will probably kill the deal,” Mr. Trump said in the interview. Asked about it, he said he did not criticise Ms. May and was gushing in his praise of his host.
Ms. May, likewise, glossed over the comments. “We agreed today that as the U.K. leaves the EU we will pursue an ambitious U.S.-U.K. free trade agreement,” she said. “The Chequers agreement reached last week provides the platform for Donald and me to pursue an ambitious deal.”