After British tabloid The Sun published audio of President Donald Trump scorching UK Prime Minister Theresa May for her handling of the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, the President claimed he didn’t criticize May and flip-flopped on his biting remarks.
In his opening comments at a joint press conference with May, Trump said that “whatever” May decides to do on Brexit is “okay with me, that’s your decision.”
“Just make sure we can trade together, that’s all that matters,” he said.
During the interview with The Sun ahead of his visit to the UK, Trump said May ignored his advice by taking a soft stance on trade with the EU as the UK exits and said that decision would “kill” any chance of an effective trade deal with the U.S.
But on Friday Trump claimed that The Sun didn’t include all his “tremendous” comments about May and explained his about-face by hinting that he had changed his mind on his criticism since speaking with May.
“Prime Minister as I just said she’s going to make a decision as to what she’s going to do,” he said. “The only thing I ask of Theresa is that we make sure we can trade. … I read reports where that won’t be possible but I believe after speaking with the Prime Minister’s people and representatives and trade experts it will be possible so based on that and based on just trade in general and our other relationship which will be fine but the trade is a little tricky.”
