Relations with May ‘strong’ after talk: Trump

A day after landing a series of broadsides against his British hosts, President Donald Trump declared Friday that his relationship with Prime Minister Theresa May was better than ever in yet another bout of diplomatic whiplash that has come to define the American president’s European visit.

Trump’s pomp-filled visit to the United Kingdom was overshadowed by an explosive interview in which he blasted May, his host, blamed London’s mayor for terror attacks against the city and argued that Europe was “losing its culture” because of immigration. He tried to downplay the fallout as he sat next to May for a meeting at Chequers, her official country house. He said they spent about 90 minutes talking at dinner Thursday and claimed they “probably never developed a better relationship than last night.” “The relationship is very strong,” Trump insisted, skirting questions about The Sun interview.

Trump said in the interview, published Thursday as May feted him at an opulent welcome dinner at a country palace, that he felt unwelcome in London because of protests, including a giant balloon that flew over Parliament on Friday depicting him as an angry diaper-wearing baby.

Interviewed before he left Brussels for the U.K, Trump accused May of ruining what her country stands to gain from its Brexit vote to leave the European Union. He said her former foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, would make an “excellent” prime minister, speaking just days after Johnson resigned his position in protest over May’s Brexit plans.

Trump added that May’s “soft” blueprint for the U.K.’s future dealings with the EU would probably “kill” any future trade deals with the United States. “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,” Trump told the paper.

Trump, who has linked his own election to the June 2016 referendum in which a slim majority of British voters supported leaving the EU, complained, “The deal she is striking is a much different deal than the one the people voted on.”

He also told the tabloid that he’d shared advice with May during Britain’s negotiations with the EU and she ignored it.

The controversy shadowed Trump across Britain, much like the 20-foot (6-meter) tall balloon depicting him as an angry baby that flew for a few hours in London during his visit. Protests were also planned in some 50 U.K. cities.

The president started the day by reviewing a private military exercise alongside May at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

“I guess when they put out blimps to make me feel unwelcome, no reason for me to go to London,” he told The Sun, which is owned by his media ally, Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox News in the United States.

Trump has been traveling by helicopter to avoid the protests in central London. After meeting with May, a scheduled joint news conference was to be dominated by the fallout from the interview before he visits Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle.