Dishing up a fresh dose of chaos on his European tour, US President Donald Trump left behind a contentious NATO gathering in Brussels and moved on to Britain, where a pomp-filled welcome ceremony was soon overshadowed by an interview.
Trump blasted British Prime Minister Theresa May, blamed London’s mayor for terror attacks against the city and said that Europe was “losing its culture” because of immigration in the interview with the Sun published on Thursday.
Trump told the newspaper that he felt unwelcome in London because of protests, including plans yesterday to fly a giant balloon over parliament that depicts him as an angry baby in a diaper.
Photo: Reuters
“I guess when they put out blimps to make me feel unwelcome, no reason for me to go to London,” he said.
Trump, in the interview given before he left Brussels, accused May of ruining what her nation stands to gain from the Brexit vote to leave the EU.
He said former foreign secretary for foreign and commonwealth affairs Boris Johnson would make an “excellent” prime minister, speaking just days after Johnson resigned his position in protest over May’s Brexit plans.
Trump added that May’s “soft” blueprint for the UK’s future dealings with the EU would probably “kill” any future trade deals with the US.
“If they do a deal like that, we would be dealing with the European Union instead of dealing with the UK, so it will probably kill the deal,” Trump said.
“The deal she is striking is a much different deal than the one the people voted on,” he added.
He also told the tabloid that he had shared advice with May during Britain’s negotiations with the EU and she ignored it.
Details from Trump’s interview became public as Trump was attending a black-tie dinner with May to welcome him to Britain.
On Thursday night, hundreds of demonstrators chanted outside the US ambassador’s residence where Trump was staying on the outskirts of London, providing a preview of the forceful protests expected yesterday.
Trump said he did not feel welcome in the city and blamed that in part on London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who gave protesters permission to fly the 6m-tall balloon.
Trump also blamed terrorist attacks there on Khan, who is a Muslim, and said that Europe is “losing its culture” because of immigration from the Middle East and Africa.
“Allowing the immigration to take place in Europe is a sham,” he said. “I think it changed the fabric of Europe and, unless you act very quickly, it’s never going to be what it was and I don’t mean that in a positive way.”
In contrast to Trump’s sharp words, his first event in England was an oasis of warm greetings at an evening reception at Blenheim Palace, birthplace of Winston Churchill. Trump’s staff opted to keep him largely out of central London and the swarms of demonstrators who are likely to provide some of the defining images of his first official trip to the UK.
Trump’s departure from the ambassador’s residence was met by jeers from demonstrators banging pots and pans, and another pack of protesters lined roads near the palace. Some of their signs read “Dump Trump,” “Lock Him Up” and “There Will Be Hell Toupee.”
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion