Exclusive
I BACK BORIS
Donald Trump wades into Tory leadership race saying Boris Johnson would do a ‘very good job’
DONALD Trump today throws his weight behind Boris Johnson to be Britain’s next PM — and reveals other Tory leadership hopefuls have also begged for his backing.
The US President spoke glowingly of the ex-Foreign Secretary in a world exclusive interview with The Sun ahead of his three-day state visit to London, starting on Monday.
3
His bombshell intervention into the Conservatives’ contest — just a few days before MPs start voting — is a major breach of protocol.
It risks sparking a full-blown diplomatic rift between London and Washington if the mop-haired former London mayor fails to take the Tory crown.
While stopping short of offering his full endorsement, Mr Trump told The Sun: “It’s something that I find very interesting.
“I actually have studied it very hard. I know the different players.
“But I think Boris would do a very good job. I think he would be excellent.”
The President added: “I like him. I have always liked him. I don’t know that he is going to be chosen, but I think he is a very good guy, a very talented person.
“He has been very positive about me and our country.”
'I HAVE ALWAYS LIKED HIM'
His intervention — and his other outspoken opinions today — mean his visit is set to be the most controversial by a serving US leader.
It was his second interview with The Sun within 12 months, having spoken to us last July ahead of his first visit to Britain in office.
Also during the exclusive interview:
- Donald Trump said Theresa May messed up Brexit by handing EU all the cards
- The President said he was surprised Meghan Markle was 'nasty' about him but it's great to have an 'American princess'
- Mr Trump said ‘I am really loved in the UK’ despite protests
Mr Trump, 72, also insisted that Boris’s well-known philandering scandals should not halt him from winning.
Asked whether he thought Mr Johnson’s extra-marital affairs and love child mattered, the President replied: “Well, it always matters, but I think that it’s certainly not what it was 20 years ago, and not certainly what it was 50 years ago. I think today it matters much less.”
Mr Trump spoke to The Sun from behind his desk in the Oval Office, the White House inner sanctum which all US presidents have used since 1909.
In more explosive remarks, he also claimed that he could have a big impact on the race for No10 — currently being fought by 12 different candidates.
And he claimed that several other contenders had also approached him for his public help.
He said: “Other people have asked me for an endorsement too. I have been asked for endorsements”.
3
Quizzed on who, Mr Trump replied: “Well, I don’t want to say who but other people have asked me for endorsements, yes”.
He added: “I could help anybody if I endorse them. I mean, we’ve had endorsement where they have gone up for forty, fifty points at a shot.
“Now that is here, but I understand over there would be a great endorsement.”
Mr Trump’s disclosure that others have approached him is likely to trigger a Westminster hunt for their identities.
He also revealed to The Sun that he looks favourably on Jeremy Hunt too, saying of the Foreign Secretary: “Yup. Like him”.
The President heaped praise on a recent leadership race offer from Mr Hunt to significantly increase UK defence spending to well above the two per cent minimum Nato target if he becomes PM. Mr Trump said: “I think that’s great. I love it”.
I don’t imagine any other US president was closer to your great land
Donald Trump
Asked if he would like all the candidates to make the same pledge on military spending, he added: “I think it’s a good thing.
“I think it’s great for the UK, and it would be part of trade.
“We make the greatest military equipment in the world.
“The UK should be able to defend themselves. It’s a great and very special place.” The President made reference to golf courses he owns on this side of the Atlantic.
He said: “As you know, OK, so, I own Turnberry, it’s a great place, one of the most beautiful.
Trump: 'I am really loved in the UK'
DONALD Trump has claimed he is “loved” in Britain and fears of protests over his state visit are overblown.
The Metropolitan Police are mounting a huge security operation in London ahead of his arrival on Monday.
But despite that, he insisted he is actually very popular with Brits.
And he claimed no US leader has ever been better disposed to the UK than him, with his mother’s Scottish roots and the three golf courses he owns in Scotland and Ireland.
He said: “I don’t imagine any US president was ever closer to your great land.”
He said: “You know, there was a time quite a while ago, six or seven years ago, when a group of people came out against me in some form.
“They were totally over-ridden by another group of people that was far larger and everybody said, ‘Let’s take a pass’.
“Now I think I am really — I hope — I am really loved in the UK. I certainly love the UK.”
He added: “I have a mother born in Scotland.
“And as you know, Stornoway is serious Scotland.
“My mother loved Scotland. My mother also loved the Queen.”
Donald Trump insists 'UK loves me' despite protests about US President's visit
“And in Ireland I own Doonbeg, OK, and my mother was born in Stornoway. OK, so that’s a lot of representation for a US president.
“I don’t imagine any other US president was closer to your great land.”
But Mr Trump also had some harsh words for another Tory leadership front-runner, Environment Secretary Michael Gove. He last week accused Mr Trump of “sabre rattling” over his aggressive policy towards Iran.
Having pulled the US out of the international nuclear deal with Tehran last year, the President recently dispatched an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf to retaliate against what America claimed were new direct threats to its interests in the region.
Mr Trump said of Mr Gove’s criticism: “Well, I’m just trying to help him and it’s not costing him anything.
3
MOST READ IN POLITICS
“I’m trying to make it so that Iran does not have nuclear weapons. Very simple. And I can’t think of anybody other than us that would benefit more than the UK, so he should be all for that.
“Nuclear weapons is the single biggest problem that the world has and we can’t allow them to proliferate. We just can’t allow it.”
Asked if Mr Gove was one of the candidates who had asked for his endorsement, Mr Trump said firmly: “No he wasn’t”.
- THE former deputy head of London’s US Embassy revealed yesterday that diplomats are terrified about Mr Trump’s outspokenness ahead of the state visit.
Lewis Lukens told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “My biggest worry would be that the president goes off script, says something inappropriate or that breaks protocol, and we end up trying to mitigate the damage.”
My view
By Tom Newton Dunn, Political Editor in Washington DC
IT was one of those days in Trump’s Washington DC.
That morning, special counsel Robert Mueller had suggested the President be impeached for obstructing justice.
Then, a few hours before our appointed 20-minute slot with him, a man set himself on fire and burned himself to death on a lawn 200 metres from the Oval Office.
But by 5pm, there seemed to be only one thing on POTUS’s mind.
“I have a question for you,” said Donald Trump, as he sat down behind the Oval Office’s famous Resolute desk, a gift from Queen Victoria.
“Tell me, what is going on? Who’s it going to be?”, and our interview started with a few minutes’ gossip on who’d win the Tory leadership race.
Whatever his critics say about his command of world affairs, one thing the 45th President of the United States does understand, and is intrigued by, is the pursuit of power.
Trump’s West Wing is far from the frantic hive of activity you see in the TV box sets.
Maybe it was the time of day, but it was striking how calm and quiet it was throughout our time inside it.
An air of unchallenged control pervades it. It’s far smaller than you imagine too.
We waited for 40 minutes in an ante corridor, lined with deep sofas that could have been the drawing room of an English country house, complete with piles of heavy coffee table books.
Trump’s daughter Ivanka, one of his closest advisers, was one of the few to walk past us, saying “hello” with a polite smile, until an aide announced the President was ready for us.
For a few moments, we were alone in the Oval Office with his no-nonsense Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.
Trump then emerged from a door that leads into his private den, which is lined – they say – with a lot of TV screens for him to cheer/shout at.
A man known not to be fond of reading long briefs, President Trump is either good at hiding irritation or was genuinely unaware of an awful lot of the slants doled out to him in Britain, be they from Jeremy Corbyn or Meghan Markle.
Perhaps that’s how they keep it so peaceful in the West Wing these days.
- GOT a story? RING The Sun on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or EMAIL [email protected]
Topics