Michael Wolff, author of Fire And Fury, claims to have interviewed Trump two weeks before Britain’s EU referendum in June 2016 “and he didn’t know what Brexit was”.
The US journalist told Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday: “I will tell you exactly the exchange that happened.
“I interviewed him in the beginning of June and I said ‘How do you compare yourself politically to the populist movements in Europe, especially’, I said, ‘with the Brexit vote coming up?’
“And he said, ‘What?’ I said ‘Brexit’, and he repeated, ‘What?’ I said: ‘The move in the UK to leave the European Union’.
“And then he said, ‘Oh, yeah, yeah, I’m for that’.
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“That is the entire exchange, make of it what you will.”
Observers have pointed out, however, that Mr Trump did, in fact, discuss Brexit on several occasions before Mr Wolff claims he made the remarks, suggesting he simply may not have heard of the term “Brexit”.
In May 2016, Mr Trump said in a Fox News interview: “I would say that they [the UK] are better off without it [the European Union], but I want them to make their own decision.”
Two months earlier he said: “I think they (Britain) may leave the EU, yes, they’re having a lot of problems.”
And former Ukip leader Nigel Farage even held talks with Mr Trump’s team back in August 2015.
He was seeking advice on how to swing the referendum, suggesting it is unlikely Mr Trump was unfamiliar with the word “Brexit” a year later.