ELLESBOROUGH, England — President Trump on Friday sought to undo the damage he’d done to British Prime Minister Theresa May, lavishing her with compliments one day after he was quoted in a British tabloid dismissing her approach to “Brexit,” praising one of her foes and threatening to upend their trade relationship — while boasting she would have been better off listening to him.
Trump, who prides himself on never apologizing, came close to ofering something of an apology for his unvarnished remarks. Although he largely blamed the Sun, media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper, for leaving out the positive things he’d said about May. The interview overshadowed much of his first official trip to Britain in capitalized headlines and a torrent of TV coverage.
“When I saw her this morning, I said, ‘I want to apologize, because I said such good things about you,’” Trump related during a joint news conference at the prime minister’s country home, Chequers. “’She said, don’t worry, it’s only the press.’ I thought that was very — I thought that was very professional.”
Trump backed away from his criticism of how May is handling Britain’s exit from the European Union. He said she had disregarded his advice to be more “brutal.” But he acknowledged Brexit is a “very complicated negotiation and not an easy negotiation, that’s for sure.”
“Whatever you’re going to do is okay with us. Just make sure we can trade together,” Trump said.
May also downplayed Trump’s remarks in the Sun, even while her staff was stunned and members of her party complained how rude a guest Trump was.
British Prime Minister Theresa May and President Trump prepare for a meeting at Chequers, the prime minister’s country residence, near Ellesborough, northwest of London on July 13, 2018. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)
May told the gathered reporters: “Lots of people give me advice about how to negotiate with the European Union. My job is actually getting out there and doing it, and that’s exactly what I’ve done.”
Trump and May visited a military base early Friday and had lunch together at Chequers. Then he left to have tea with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle.
The body language of that highly symbolic meeting was always going to be closely scrutinized. It didn’t go without notice that, even though it’s not mandatory, Trump and the first lady did not bow or curtsy when they greeted the queen. Later, during an inspection of guardsmen, Trump momentarily eclipsed the queen, moving in front of her and then stopping, apparently looking to see where she was. The queen navigated her way around him. The British press was divided over whether Trump simply stumbled over a bit of royal stagecraft or breached protocol.
Trump is deeply unpopular in Britain, and has largely avoided London altogether, where a large blimp mocking him flew above mass protests on Friday.
Still, Trump’s comments in the Sun caused May intense embarrassment in a week when her cabinet is beset by division, her compromise plan to exit the European Union is being excoriated by her domestic critics, and rebels in her Conservative party are threatening a no-confidence vote.
She had been looking to Trump in this visit to help her sell her Brexit plan by promising generous bilateral trade deals for Britain after it leaves the European Union.
The Sun interview seemed to dash those hopes. Trump was quoted saying that if May follows through on her compromise Brexit plan, maintaining close ties to the European Union, “that would probably end a major trade relationship with the United States.”
But at the news conference Friday, Trump affirmed: “We want to trade with the U.K., and the U.K. wants to trade with us.”
He added: “I give our relationship with the U.K., in terms of grade, the highest level of special.”
May’s advisers said the news conference was a welcome relief — and that the trip was salvaged from disaster.
Trump still reiterated his praise for Boris Johnson, May’s rival, who resigned as foreign secretary this week in protest over May’s Brexit approach. Trump explained his comments to the Sun about Johnson in terms of himself, as he often does.
“I said he’ll be a great prime minister. He’s been very nice to me. He’s been saying very good things about me as president,” Trump said.
Johnson last month said that Trump would do a better job than May has done negotiating Brexit.
Trump and May, who were seen holding hands while strolling around the country estate, as farm animals brayed in the distance, differed in both substance and style in the news conference.
Trump, whose wife is a European immigrant to the United States, reiterated his claim that immigration — legal or otherwise, he did not say — is hurting Europe. He also argued that U.S. laws on immigration were too weak and said that “we have laws that are so bad I don’t even call them laws.”
“It’s changing the culture, I think it’s a very negative thing for Europe,” he said, noting it was not politically correct to say that, “but I’ll say it and I’ll say it loud.”
May, standing at a lectern beside Trump, disagreed. “Overall immigration has been good for the U.K.,” she said. “It’s brought people with different backgrounds, different outlooks here to the U.K., and has — and we’ve seen them contributing to our society and to our economy.”
The two have previously squabbled over immigration, as recently as the Group of Seven meeting last month in Canada, aides said.
Trump again blasted German Chancellor Angela Merkel for working with Russia on a natural gas pipeline, following his incendiary charge at the NATO meeting in Brussels this week that Merkel was “captive to Russia.”
“I think it’s a horrible thing that Germany’s doing,” he said. May said only that the project would be discussed further within the European Union.
Trump was meandering, combative and inaccurate in many of his answers — attacking “fake news” CNN, referencing his uncle “John Trump at MIT” to crow about his understanding of nuclear weapons and repeatedly lampooning President Obama, his predecessor. He again falsely stated that he predicted “Brexit” one day before it happened at his Turnberry golf club and said that the United States was responsible for 90 percent of NATO spending. (The United States spent 68.7 percent of the NATO’s combined defense spending last year, reflecting the its superpower status and 3.57 percent of gross domestic product.) Trump also overstated the trade deficit with China and the number of troops in Germany.
“I would call it the rigged witch hunt,” he said at one point of the Mueller investigation, dissecting the testimony of FBI agent Peter Strzok aloud and lamenting that he didn’t watch more of it Thursday because of the time difference.
May was far more precise and short in her answers, did not attack political foes or the media and was determined to avoid all criticism of Trump — even as she faced nonstop questions about his dimissals of her.
Trump said he plans to raise a range of topics in his summit on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, including nuclear proliferation, which Trump said he considers the largest problem facing the world.
He declined to say whether he would make a deal with Putin on Syria. Some are fearful that Trump will pull troops out of the region.
Trump also pledged to raise the issue of election meddling during the summit and that he would tell Putin not to interfere in future U.S. elections.
“I don’t think you’ll have any, ‘Gee, I did it. I did it. You got me,’” Trump said. “There won’t be a Perry Mason here, I don’t think, but you never know what happens, right?”
He said “we’ll see” about Crimea, which Putin illegally annexed in 2014 to the derision of the world. Trump said again that he thought he could get along with Putin.
“This was an Obama disaster. And I think if I were president then, he would not have taken over Crimea,” Trump said, fending off a tough question about Putin’s annexation — the main point of contention for NATO allies, by essentially blaming his predecessor.
Dawsey and Booth reported from London. Karla Adam in London and John Wagner in Washington contributed to this report.
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