Donald Trump has rescheduled a planned trip to the UK and will now arrive in the country the day before the referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union (EU). He has previously made it clear that he backs Britain voting to leave the bloc.
Mr Trump is due to visit a number of his hotels and golf resorts across Scotland and Ireland later this month and was originally due to arrive in the country on June 24, the day the results of the referendum will be announced.
But in the early hours of this morning he took to Twitter to announce that the trip has been brought forward by two days, meaning that he will now be in the country before the British people go to the polls.
The reasons for his change of plans are unclear, fuelling speculation that he may make an eleventh–hour intervention in the referendum campaign in support of a Leave vote.
Although he has been noticeably cooler on the referendum question than his President, Barack Obama, telling reporters in March that it is for Britain to decide its own relationship with the EU, he has since made it clear that he supports a Brexit.
Speaking to Fox News in May he said he thinks that the migration crisis “has been a horrible thing for Europe” and that “a lot of that was pushed by the EU.”
Consequently, he concluded: “I would say that they’re better off without it personally, but I’m not making that as a recommendation – just my feeling.
Mr Trump may receive a cool welcome from the British establishment when he arrives – the British Prime Minister David Cameron has refused to apologise for branding Mr Trump’s call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the US as “divisive, stupid and wrong,” telling reporters: “What I said about Muslims, I wouldn’t change that view. I’m very clear that the policy idea that was put forward was wrong. It is wrong, and it will remain wrong.”
However, he admitted that Mr Trump “deserves our respect” for fighting off his Republican opponents to position himself as the presumptive Presidential candidate for the party.
Mr Trump’s comments on Brexit are in stark contrast to those made by President Obama during a visit to the UK in April, during which he suggested that leaving the EU would leave Britain diminished and isolated, would cost jobs, and in terms of a trade deal with the US, would see itself placed “at the back of the queue.”
Strongly recommending that the British people vote to Remain, he added: “This is a decision for the people of the United Kingdom to make. … I am offering my opinion, and in democracies, everybody should want more information, not less, and you shouldn’t be afraid to hear an argument being made.”
In response, Boris Johnson MP said: “I think it is time to channel the spirit of the early Obama, and believe in Britain again.
“Can we take back control of our borders and our money and our system of government? Yes we can.
“Can we stand on our own two feet? Yes we can.
“Can we speak up for the hundreds of millions around the continent who also feel estranged from the Brussels project? Can we once again be the champions of democracy? Yes we can.”