Comments on U.S. president’s “number one ally” starkly at odds with lambasting of the EU.
Donald Trump offered an olive branch to the U.K. in his trade war with allies Thursday, saying the country is in a “very different place” to the European Union he has heavily criticized.
Trump this week lambasted the EU as designed to « screw the United States » and promised to “very soon” slap tariffs of 25 percent on goods made in the bloc.
British officials have been nervously eying Trump’s trade assault on traditional U.S. allies and hoping to dodge his ire. Their spirits will have been lifted Thursday when Trump said during U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s visit to the White House that the U.K. is in “a very different place.”
Trump did not rule out tariffs on the U.K. — but he said he had a “warm spot” for the country, reeling off golfing investments there (and in neighboring Ireland )— and said he would have a “good discussion” about it with Britain.
He added of Starmer: “We’ve known each other now for a little while. This is not our first meeting. He loves his country. And so, that’s our common theme. He loves his country. And I love our country.
“And we also have two countries that have gotten along for the longest period of time. Number one ally on each side. We have France, Australia, a lot of good ones — but we’ve had a long-time relationship, a long-time, hundreds of years. »
