MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Trump says Brexit a 'great thing,' will meet PM May to reach trade deal with UK
US President-elect Trump believes “business is unbelievable in a lot of parts of the UK” US-President-elect Donald Trump said in a newspaper interview published on Sunday that “Brexit is going to end up being a great thing.” He also confirmed he will be meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May soon after his inauguration on January 20 to finalise a trade agreement between the two countries that will be “good for both sides.”
Interviewed for The Times by Michael Gove, a writer and MP from Britain's ruling Conservative Party, Trump said “business is unbelievable in a lot of parts of the UK, as you know.” He added that “Brexit is going to end up being a great thing.” The interview was given in the President-elect’s office in Trump Tower, just days before his inauguration and it also featured the German publication Bild.
Gove was a leading figure in the anti-EU campaign. The president-elect has previously allied himself with another leading Brexit campaigner, Nigel Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence Party who flew to the US to support Trump during his election bid. Farage was the first British politician to meet with Trump following the November election, a move which prompted frustration within the British government which has long since clashed with anti-establishment Farage.
Trump also forecast in his Sunday interview that other countries would follow Britain's lead in voting to leave the 28-country bloc. “I think people want . . . their own identity, so if you ask me ... I believe others will leave.”
The president-elect blamed the Brexit referendum result on an influx of refugees to Europe, which saw more than a million people arrive during 2015. “If they hadn't been forced to take in all of the refugees, so many, with all the problems that it... entails, I think that you wouldn't have a Brexit. This was the final straw that broke the camel’s back,” he said. He also explained that “I think that if refugees keep pouring into different parts of Europe, it’s going to be very hard to keep it together because people are angry about it.”
Trump, who campaigned on an anti-immigration platform during the presidential race, promising voters he would build a wall on the Mexico border to stop people entering the US illegally, said the arrival of refugees could lead to the break-up of the EU, but also, “you look at the European Union and it’s Germany... Basically a vehicle for Germany ... That’s why I thought the UK was so smart in getting out,” he added.
Trump slammed Angela Merkel’s migrant policy as “a catastrophic mistake,” saying that Germany shouldn’t have taken “all these illegals … nobody even knows where they come from.” Merkel took flak at home after her open-door policy aimed at desperate Syrian refugees brought 890,000 asylum seekers to Europe's biggest economy in 2015, contributing to the rise of an anti-migrant movement. The mass arrivals prompted an initial mass outpouring of support, but fear about the consequences has also driven anti-immigrant party Alternative for Germany to between 10 and 15 percent in polls. One MP deserted Merkel's centre-right Christian Democratic Union this weekend over her refugee policy, as the Chancellor tees up a re-election bid later this year.
While he allowed that Merkel was a “fantastic leader,” the Republican said that Germany had “got a clear impression” of the consequences of her policy from a deadly December 19 terrorist attack in Berlin in which a hijacked truck was used to mow down Christmas market patrons, killing 12.
Trump said that he would start out “trusting both” Merkel and also Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Let's see how long that lasts, may not last long at all,” he admitted.
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Read all comments@DemonTree
Jan 17th, 2017 - 09:09 am +4Agree with your view of Trump campaigning on an anti-elitism pledge. What is so sad is how so many gullible individuals never thought to think that Trump is the total epitomy of the elitism that the were so fanatical in voting against. I just hope that government and civil servants are able force Trump to reflect when in post and are able to temper this naraccistic, arrogant bully, especially one who has his finger on 7000+ nuclear warheads.
ElaineB
Jan 18th, 2017 - 05:36 pm +3It was the EU's foreign policy (or lack of it) that has caused most of the problems with Russia in the 1st place. They interfered in the Ukraine, and when the Russians pushed back and annexed the Crimea, the cowards in the EU did nothing.
And who was held responsible for this colossal FUBAR in the Ukraine? No one, because the decisions are made by a bunch of unelected officials who have NO ACCOUNTABILITY whatsoever.
I don't know whether Trump will be a good or bad President. It's far too early to say. But what I do know is that he's far more pro-British than Obama ever was, which can only benefit the UK.
As for what he says...well he's not a politician. He says things the way he sees them, and doesn't use flowery political double-speak as politicians do. Will this go against him? Who knows...as I said it's far too early to know for sure.
But what he says about the EU and NATO is right. The majority of NATO members don't fulfil the requirement for membership...only 5 do: USA, UK, Poland, Estonia and Greece. Greece, despite ALL it's financial problems manages to pay the 2% GDP required...but Germany and France DON'T. Yet all those other countries expect to be protected by NATO.
Trumps right, it they don't believe their safety and security is important enough to spend the money on it, why should they get any help?
Lets face it, without the USA, NATO is nothing. The majority of NATO missions are manned mainly by US and UK troops, with the US giving the largest numbers.
Why should US troops fight and die for countries that aren't willing to risk their own citizens to do so?
As for Merkel, he was spot on about her. When she threw open the borders, without any controls whatsoever, she made a monumental mistake, but that mistake won't only affect Germany, it'll affect the whole of the EU. How can one country be allowed to take unilateral decisions that have such and impact on ever other member?
The EU is finished. Good riddance to it.
@ElaineB
Jan 17th, 2017 - 01:12 am +2Yes, his opinion on Brexit is entirely unsurprising. It fits in with his anti-elitist pose and weakens the EU which is a rival power block to the US.
@Paragon
Interesting theory. What exactly do you think the US has been doing to Europe that produced weak leaders in only the last decade or so? And do you include Blair in this list too? How about Merkel?
It's hardly surprising they are hostile to Trump though, since he wants to disband NATO and has encouraged an ugly US nationalism, as well as embracing financial policies that could potentially screw up the world economy. In my opinion it is completely rational for the leaders of almost any other country to be suspicious of and hostile to Trump, though not very sensible of them to be open about it.
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