In what appears to now be a tradition, Donald Trump has given his only TV interview while visiting the UK to his long-time friend and fan, Piers Morgan, on his breakfast show Good Morning Britain.
After the 30-minute segment aired, Britain instantly engaged in another national tradition – arguing about Morgan on Twitter.
The GMB host had preempted the row, saying before the interview aired: “I don’t have to defend myself”.
He added: “The bottom line is I get interviews, and I know it annoys all my rivals but I’m very sorry that they spend all their time outside in the rain getting wet and then doing sarky tweets about me and I find that quite entertaining.”
So how did he do? Speaking in the Churchill War Rooms in central London, the duo covered a wide range of topics. Here’s what we learned...
On Jeremy Corbyn
Yesterday it emerged Trump had turned down a request to meet Jeremy Corbyn, describing him as “something of a negative force”.
It came just a day after the Labour leader’s office had said Corbyn would snub the president by speaking at a rally against him on Wednesday.
Morgan floated the possibility of Trump having to negotiate a trade deal with Corbyn if he became PM.
The president said: “It’s always possible. Anything is possible.
“I think it’s a long shot when you say that, you know, I don’t, I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
On the NHS
The president appeared to backtrack on comments he made during a press conference with Theresa May in which he said the NHS will be “on the table” in talks on a UK-US trade deal after Brexit.
He told Morgan: “I don’t see it being on the table.
“Somebody asked me a question today and I say everything is up for negotiation, because everything is. But I don’t see that as being, that something that I would not consider part of trade. That’s not trade.”
On climate change
Trump’s climate change scepticism is well-documented – he once said it was “created by and for the Chinese” and has passed numerous pieces of legislation that campaigners say are harmful to the environment.
During his visit to the UK, Trump spoke with Prince Charles, a passionate and outspoken environmentalist.
Morgan asked: “Did [Prince Charles] manage to persuade you on the merits of the science on climate change?
Trump replied: “He is really into climate change and I like that.”
When pressed if he believed in climate change, Trump said: “I believe there is a change in weather and I think it changes both ways. Don’t forget, it used to be called global warming, that wasn’t working, then it’s called climate change and now it’s called extreme weather.
The president then appeared to rubbish the idea of extreme weather by talking about “tornado binges”.
He said: “We have a thing now, Tornados, I don’t remember Tornados in the US to the extent [they are now], but then when you look back to 40 years ago we had the worst tornado binge we’ve ever had.”
On Meghan Markle
In a particularly confusing segment, Trump attempted to clear up reports he called Meghan Markle “nasty” by essentially repeating the accusation.
Morgan asked the president to clarify comments he made in an interview with The Sun in which he was told the Duchess of Sussex once said he was “misogynistic” and “divisive”.
Trump had told the paper: “I didn’t know that. What can I say? I didn’t know that she was nasty.”
When asked by Morgan to explain the comments, Trump said: “They said some of the things that she said and It’s actually on tape. And I said: ‘Well, I didn’t know she was nasty;’.
“I wasn’t referring to ‘she’s nasty’. I said she was nasty about me. And essentially I didn’t know she was nasty about me.”
When pressed again by Morgan to clarify what he said, Trump added: “She was nasty to me. And that’s okay for her to be nasty, it’s not good for me to be nasty to her and I wasn’t.”
On not serving in Vietnam
Trump infamously received five draft deferments during the Vietnam War - four for college and one for “bone spurs” in his heels.
Before this the athletically-built, six foot two-tall, 22-year-old played American football, tennis, squash and was just about to fall in love with golf.
When asked if he would have served were it not for the diagnosis, Trump said: “I would not have minded that at all, I would have been honoured. I think I make up for it now.”
On LGBT rights
Last year Trump released an order banning most transgender troops from serving in the military except under “limited circumstances”.
When asked why, Trump blamed the cost of the drugs transgender people had to take, despite the US military having a budget of over $1 trillion.
Morgan suggested this was hypocritical given that just a few weeks ago he had tweeted in support of the LGBT community.
He said: “Because they take massive amounts of drugs, they have to, and also, you’re not allowed to take drugs, in the military you’re not allowed to take any drugs.
“You take an aspirin and they have to, after the operation, they have to, they have no choice, they have to. You would actually have to break rules and regulations in order to have that.”
On guns
Morgan, a passionate anti-gun activist, raised the issue of mass shooting with the president who once again tried to use the example of the Paris terror attacks to justify the US’s lax gun laws.
He said: “Do you know, the one I think about the most is Paris where they had so many people, where they had a whacky group of people who went into a nightclub and they just boom, boom, boom and they killed tremendous numbers of people.
“Horribly injured, some still in the hospital. If there was a gun on the other side, if one or two or three of those people had a gun it would have never happened.”
Morgan replied: “Here’s my problem with that argument. More people were shot dead in America that week, than have died from guns in Paris since the Second World War.”
Trump responded by saying: “What are you going to do, take the guns away from hunters?”