Boris Johnson has said he would like to tweet how Donald Trump does, but is not allowed.
The foreign secretary defended the US president this morning as someone whose approach to politics has “gripped the imagination of people around the world”.
“He has engaged people in politics in a way we haven’t seen for a long time with his tweets and all the rest of it,” he told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme.
“I do think that he raises people’s awareness of issues, he engages in a very direct way.
“I certainly wouldn’t be allowed to tweet like him, much as I would like to.”
Johnson then added: “My Foreign Office minder is looking extremely apprehensive here.”
Some of Trump’s recent tweets include attacking MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski as “bleeding badly from a face-lift” and posting a gif of him fake wrestling a man with a CNN logo instead of a head to the ground.
Theresa May will meet Trump in Hamburg today for one-to-one talks as world leaders gather for the G20 summit.
The prime minister will meet the president on the fringes of the summit that will also focus on growing concerns over missile testing by North Korea.
Despite his praise for Trump, Johnson said the British government did “not agree by any means with everything that Washington currently says”.
“It’s very important to understand, when Theresa May goes meet the president today, as she will in Hamburg, it’s important to understand that our role as the UK is to represent our own point of view,” he said,
The foreign secretary said the prime minister would press Trump not to abandon moves to tackle climate change, to commit to Nato and to stick to the Iran nuclear deal.
“It’s the UK that is actually helping, we think, to mitigate. To get some of those American attitudes and policies that are currently coming out of the White House into a better place.”
May has been sharply criticised by Jeremy Corbyn and others for appearing to be too close to Trump.
And she has faced criticism for failing to sign up to a statement by France, Germany and Italy that said the Paris accord cannot be renegotiated after Trump announced he would pull the US out of the deal.
May has invited the president on a state visit to the UK but speculation that it may have been put on hold in the face of expected protests was fuelled by its absence from last month’s Queen’s Speech.
A surprise visit to the UK in the coming weeks, where the president could have given as little as 24 hours notice, also appeared to be on the cards but has since been ruled out by the White House.
Trump is in Poland on Thursday before attending the G20. He will also attend the Bastille Day celebrations in France on July 14.