President Trump in Scotland on next leg of UK trip
TURNBERRY, United Kingdom: US President Donald Trump wraps up a four-day visit to Britain, dominated by his blasting of Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit strategy, by spending the weekend in Scotland.
Trump is staying at one of his luxury golf resorts in Turnberry, southwest of Glasgow, in a private part of the trip before heading for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, a fierce critic of Trump, has refused to meet him and he was instead met at Glasgow airport by a British government representative.
A major anti-Trump rally is planned in Edinburgh after a mass protest in London that organisers said drew more than 250,000 people.
A pro-Trump demonstration is also due to be held in London by alt-right campaigners, as well as a counter, anti-fascism protest.
In an extraordinary interview with Friday’s edition of The Sun tabloid, Britain’s most widely read newspaper, Trump said May’s plan for post-Brexit ties with the EU would ‘probably kill’ prospects for a UK-US trade deal.
He also said former foreign minister Boris Johnson, who resigned over the plan earlier this week and is a potential challenger to May, would make ‘a great prime minister’.
Trump said he had advised May to take a different strategy on Brexit, telling the paper: “I would have done it much differently. I actually told Theresa May how to do it but she didn’t agree, she didn’t listen to me”.
The unprecedented criticism comes at a particularly sensitive time for May, who is facing a rebellion by Brexit hardliners against her proposals to retain strong trading ties with the EU even after Britain leaves the bloc.
After meeting May at her Chequers country retreat outside London, Trump sounded more conciliatory, saying that bilateral relations ‘have never been stronger’.
“Whatever you do is okay with us, just make sure we can trade together, that’s all that matters,” he told May.
“The United States looks forward to finalising a great bilateral trade deal,” he said, and repeatedly praised May’s leadership, saying she was a ‘terrific woman’. — AFP