President Trump[1] in Britain on Friday skirmished with members of the press he deemed “fake news” and put on display his strong relationship with Prime Minister Theresa May[2].
Mr. Trump[3] and Mrs. May[4] held hands as they entered and exited a joint press conference and repeatedly praised each other, contradicting a bombshell report about the president criticizing her Brexit plan.
“Whatever you are going to do is OK with us,” Mr. Trump[5] said of the Brexit plan at the press confreres, adding, “as long as you can trade with us.”
Before a meeting with Mrs. May[6], Mr. Trump[7] said her plan fell short of the hard exit from the E.U. that voters wanted — and noted it could scuttle a U.S.-U.K. trade deal.
“The deal she is striking is a much different deal than the one the people voted on. It was not the deal that was in the referendum,” Mr. Trump[8] told the Sun, a tabloid newspaper in London.
But Mr. Trump[9] and Mrs. May[10] were on the same page when they emerged from their talks at Chequers, the prime minister’s official estate in Ellesborough, about 40 miles northwest of London.
At the presser, Mr. Trump[11] said the prime minister was doing a “fantastic job” and that Brexit was “very complicated and not an easy negotiation for sure.”
Mr. Trump[12] also took on the newspaper’s report about him praising former British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, a Brexit hardliner who quit Monday over Mrs. May[13]’s plan for a soft exit from the E.U.
The newspaper asked if Mr. Johnson would be a good leader and Mr. Trump[14] said he would be a “great prime minister.”...
Mr. Trump[15] said he also praised Mrs. May[16] in the interview but that was not in the headline.“It’s called ‘fake news’ and we solve a lot of problems with the good old recording instruments,” said Mr. Trump[17].Mr. Trump[18] said he apologized to Ms. May[19] about the report but “she said, ‘Don’t worry it’s the press.’”Mrs. May[20] insisted she would execute a clean break with the European Union that included independent trade authority to cut deals with the U.S. and the rest of the world.“This does deliver on the vote of the British people,” she said.Mr. Trump[21] said that his comments to the newspaper about trade were based on reports that the E.U. would continue to affect U.K. trade deals. He said Mrs. May[22] convinced him that was not the case.“We want to trade with the U.K. and the U.K. wants to trade with us,” he said.The U.K. voted for Brexit two