Trump Tells British TV He Would Take ‘Tougher’ Stance on Brexit

President Trump said he would take a “tougher” attitude toward Brexit negotiations than the approach now being used by Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain.

کد خبر: ۷۶۹۱۳۱

تاریخ: ۰۹ بهمن ۱۳۹۶ - ۱۰:۳۲

“Would it be the way I negotiate? No, I wouldn’t negotiate it the way it’s negotiated ... I would have had a different attitude,” he said in an interview with ITV, a British television network, that was broadcast Sunday night.

“I would have said that the European Union is not cracked up to what it’s supposed to be,” he said.

Britain is preparing to leave the European Union in March 2019. The complex negotiations have moved slowly and Mrs. May’s cabinet seems deeply divided over how best to separate Britain from the 28-nation bloc.

Mr. Trump expressed annoyance with European Union trade policy. “We cannot get our product in,” he said. “It’s very, very tough. And yet, they send their product to us — no taxes, very little taxes.”

He said his problems with the European Union “may morph into something very big” from a trade standpoint.

In the interview with the journalist Piers Morgan, Mr. Trump had high praise for President Emmanuel Macron of France.

“He’s a great guy,” Mr. Trump said. “His wife is fantastic. I like them a lot. You know, we had dinner at the top of the Eiffel Tower, and everything was closed.”

He said he looked forward to visiting Britain, where he has been invited for a state visit to be hosted by Queen Elizabeth II, and said he did not care that some Britons want him to stay away.

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He even joked about his hair: “It’s hanging in, barely,” he said.

Discussing the coming royal wedding, he said that Britain’s Prince Harry and the actress Meghan Markle look like a “lovely couple” and that he did not know if he had been invited to their May 19 wedding.

Told by Mr. Morgan that Ms. Markle had called him a “divisive misogynist,” the president struck a friendly note: “Well, I still hope they’re happy.”

During the interview, he seemed open to revisiting his pledge to withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate accord if the deal could be substantially revised.

“If somebody said, go back into the Paris accord, it would have to be a completely different deal because we had a horrible deal,” Mr. Trump said.

“Would I go back in? Yeah, I’d go back in. I like, as you know, I like Emmanuel. I would love to, but it’s got to be a good deal for the United States,” he said, referring to the French president.

Mr. Trump said the climate had been cooling as well as warming and asserted that ice caps had not been shrinking as predicted.

Asked about his treatment of women, Mr. Trump said he has “tremendous respect” for women but does not consider himself a feminist.

“I think that would be, maybe, going too far,” he said.

The interview was conducted Thursday during Mr. Trump’s brief visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.