Trump interferes in British politics and insults royal family ahead of state visit
Donald Trump weighed into Britain’s political turmoil by expressing his admiration for Boris Johnson, the pro-Brexit former Foreign Secretary who’s favored to succeed Theresa May as prime minister.
Trump insisted to the Sun newspaper he wasn’t giving a full endorsement to any of the 12 candidates to become leader of Britain’s ruling Conservative party but said Johnson “would be excellent” and would do a “very good job” running the country. The newspaper called Trump’s comments, on the eve of the president’s state visit to the U.K., a breach of convention.
“I like him,” Trump said in an interview with the country’s best-selling newspaper, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. “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.”
The president’s intervention — before banqueting with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace — upends the usual diplomatic rules against commenting on allies’ internal political contests. It is potentially embarrassing for May for the president to be speculating in public about who will replace her just a few days before she welcomes him to London, where the pair will hold talks. [Continue reading…]
The president also referred to the American-born Duchess of Sussex as “nasty” over comments she made in 2016 threatening to move to Canada if Trump won the White House. [Continue reading…]