President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday he may talk to “friend” Boris Johnson when he arrives in the United Kingdom this week and described Theresa May’s future as prime minister as a matter best left “up to the people.”
Trump stopped to talk with reporters before boarding Marine One from the White House to head to the NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium and then on to London for meetings.
Reporters asked Trump if he has spoken with UK Prime Minister Theresa May since Boris Johnson resigned his position as foreign secretary on Monday.
“No I have not,” replied President Trump. “But Boris Johnson’s a friend of mine. He’s been very, very nice to me, very supportive. And I maybe well speak to him when I get over there. I like Boris Johnson, I’ve always liked him.”
Johnson resigned over May’s conciliatory approach to Brexit negotiations. His resignation followed the departure of Brexit Secretary David Davis. Davis proclaimed that he could not support May’s handling of Brexit, explaining her plan “hands control of large swathes of our economy to the EU and is certainly not returning control of our laws in any real sense.”
Asked Tuesday if May should remain in power, Trump said, “Well, that’s up to the people.”
“I get along with her very well, I have very good relationship,” Trump said of his relationship with the UK premier. He repeated however, that whether she remains in power is “certainly up to the people, not up to me.”
“We appear to be heading for a semi-Brexit, with large parts of the economy still locked in the EU system, but with no UK control over that system,” Johnson said in his Monday resignation letter. “It is as though we are sending our vanguard into battle with the white flags fluttering above them.”
President Trump departs the NATO summit for the U.K. on July 12.
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