Diplomatic turbulence marks Trump’s two-day visit to England

World Today

It’s a weekend of golf for U.S. President Donald Trump in Scotland after a whirlwind 48-hours in England.

A black-tie dinner, meetings, and a news conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May.

There was also a controversial interview with a British tabloid. And, tea with Queen Elizabeth.

CGTN’s Richard Bestic reports.
Follow Richard Bestic on Twitter @bestic_richard

As the U.S. president flew around the English countryside, political and diplomatic turbulence followed in his wake.

Greeted with all the majesty of Britain’s famous pomp and ceremony, later his Brexit bombshell would be discovered.

Interviewed by the Rupert Murdoch-owned Sun newspaper, he said his host U.K., Prime Minister Theresa May, had wrecked Brexit along with Britain’s chances of a U.S. trade deal.

Fast forward to talks at Chequers, the country house of UK’s prime minister, and President Trump revealed it was all fake news, whatever the UK wanted to do on Brexit was fine with him and Theresa May was his new best friend:

“Last night, we really I was very embarrassed for the rest of the table, but we just talked about lots of different problems and solutions to those problems and it was a great evening.”

In terms of damage limitation, that was as good as it was going to get for Theresa May as she struggles to pitch her Brexit blueprint to Eurosceptics in her own party.

For President Trump, it was on to the highlight of his UK stopover; Tea with the Queen.

A high etiquette affair, of which Trump’s Scottish mother, an ardent Royalist, would have fully approved. Trump, himself, on best behavior.

The U.S. president now spending his weekend at one of his Scottish golf resorts ahead of a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin – on the agenda Crimea, Ukraine and alleged Russian interference with the U.S. elections.


David Smith discusses President Trump’s trip to the UK

CGTN’s Asieh Namdar spoke with The Guardian’s David Smith about the first official visit of US President Donald Trump to the U.K.