Donald Trump has promised to “stay out” of the general election during this week’s visit to the UK – and then immediately backed both Boris Johnson and Brexit.
Speaking to reporters on the first day of his visit to the UK for a two-day meeting of Nato leaders, the infamously opinionated president was asked why he hadn’t commented on next week’s vote.
He replied: “Because I don’t want to complicate it. I’ll stay out of the election.”
Trump then immediately complicated things by adding: “I think Boris is very capable and I think he’ll do a good job.
“You know that I was a fan of Brexit. I called it the day before.”
Trump did show a measure of restraint, however, when asked if he could work with Jeremy Corbyn should Labour win the general election.
The president replied: “I can work with anybody. I’m a very easy person to work with.”
Later in the press conference he elaborated – sort of –, saying: “I know nothing about the man.”
Trump also emphatically denied the US is seeking to open up the NHS to American competition, fears raised by a set of leaked papers revealed by Labour last week, but also appeared to be confused about what has been suggested.
The US government has already expressed a desire to open up UK markets to American drugs companies, but Trump made it sound like the entire NHS was for sale.
He said: “We have absolutely nothing to do with it and we wouldn’t want to if you handed it to us on a silver platter. We want nothing to do with it.”
Trump added: “I don’t even know where that rumour started.”
The rumour started in June of this year when Trump said: “When you’re dealing in trade, everything is on the table so NHS or anything else... everything will be on the table, absolutely.”
The NHS is a hot topic during trump’s visit to the UK. Corbyn welcomed him with a letter demanding he will not try to push medicine prices up through a post-Brexit trade deal.
Last week, the Labour Party leader called a press conference at which he brandished an unredacted report that gave details of meetings between US and UK officials, where they discussed the stipulations of a free trade deal between the two nations after Britain leaves the European Union.