According to NBC News , British Prime Minister Theresa May told reporters Sunday that President Trump advised her to sue the EU over Brexit.
During Friday’s joint press conference with Prime Minister May, Trump announced that he provided May with a suggestion concerning Brexit that she apparently found “too brutal.”
When asked about this suggestion on Sunday, May told BBC, “He told me I should sue the E.U. Not go into negotiations, sue them.” May did not elaborate on what Trump exactly meant by this.
Just last month, Former British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told BuzzFeed ahead of his resignation, “Imagine Trump doing Brexit. He’d go in bloody hard…There’d be all sorts of breakdowns, all sorts of chaos. Everyone would think he’d gone mad.”
Preceding this advice, however, President Trump made several comments attacking the Prime Minister, particularly criticizing the way in which she has handled Brexit negotiations.
In an interview with the British newspaper The Sun , President Trump claimed that May had essentially destroyed her chances of negotiating a free-trade deal with The United States. Trump also claimed that he instructed May on what to do about the current Brexit negotiations, adding that “she didn’t listen to me.”
Trump, however, later denied ever criticizing May, claiming that The Sun failed to include the several compliments he showered May with during his interview. After facing backlash from both supporters and opponents of May, Trump attempted to walk back his previous criticisms by calling her an “incredible woman” and claiming that she is doing a great job as Prime Minister of the UK.
British journalist Piers Morgan asked President Trump on Friday if he had managed to discuss Brexit with 92-year-old Queen Elizabeth II. In response, Trump said, “I did. She said it’s a very — and she’s right — it’s a very complex problem, I think nobody had any idea how complex that was going to be…Everyone thought it was going to be ‘Oh it’s simple, we join or don’t join, or let’s see what happens.’”
Trump also went on to praise and compliment the Queen. He was reported saying in the British newspaper The Mail on Sunday, “She is an incredible woman, she is so sharp, she is so beautiful, when I say beautiful — inside and out. That is a beautiful woman.”
Now, towards the end of President Trump’s first official visit to the UK, he has returned to his golf resort in Scotland, ahead of his first ever meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
