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Donald Trump described Boris Johnson as ‘the right man’ to deliver Brexit, as the pair met for a breakfast meeting at the G7 summit in Biarritz. Photo: EPA

What’s for breakfast at G7? Donald Trump dishes out praise for ‘fantastic’ UK PM Boris Johnson

  • Boris Johnson turns on the charm in first meeting as leader with US President Donald Trump
  • It marked a stark difference from Johnson’s earlier opinions on Trump, whom he once called a man of ‘stupefying ignorance’
G7
Agencies

US President Donald Trump on Sunday backed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as the “right man” for Brexit as the two leaders held a warm first meeting at a G7 summit marked by tensions over trade.

Johnson and Trump were on obviously friendly terms as they sat down for a working breakfast in the southern French resort of Biarritz where Group of Seven leaders gathered this weekend.

“He’s going to be a fantastic prime minster,” Trump said in their first face-to-face meeting since Johnson took office last month.

Asked what his advice was for Brexit, Trump replied: “He needs no advice. He’s the right man for the job. I’ve been saying that for a long time. It didn’t make your predecessor happy …”

Trump’s undiplomatic outbursts often targeted Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May. Johnson replied that Trump’s backing was “on message there”.

A new US-UK trade deal after Britain leaves the EU was at the heart of their meeting and both men appeared upbeat about the chances of success after Johnson a day earlier urged Trump to remove the “considerable barriers” impeding UK companies exports to the US.

Johnson promised that “we are going to do a fantastic deal once we clear some of the obstacles in our path”.

EU leaders round on US President Donald Trump over trade as tense G7 summit gets underway

Trump replied that a “very big trade deal, bigger than we’ve ever had” was possible “quickly”.

In the lead-up to the talks, Johnson had appeared at pains to distance himself from Trump after facing accusations in the past of being too cosy with the American leader who has called him “Britain Trump”.

The three-day G7 meeting started on Saturday was marked by EU leaders rounding on Trump over his escalating trade war with China and tariff threats to the EU.

But Trump denied there was any ill will and called an impromptu lunch on a hotel terrace French host Emmanuel Macron on Saturday “the best meeting we have yet had”.

“Before I arrived in France, the Fake and Disgusting News was saying that relations with the 6 others countries in the G-7 are very tense, and that the two days of meetings will be a disaster,” Trump tweeted on Sunday morning.

“Well, we are having very good meetings, the Leaders are getting along very well, and our Country, economically, is doing great – the talk of the world!” he added.

But Johnson registered his disapproval of Trump’s trade war with China, which EU leaders have warned is hitting economic growth around the world and risks causing recessions.

“Just to register a faint, sheeplike note of our view on the trade war – we are in favour of trade peace on the whole,” Johnson said.

Asked if he had second thoughts about his move to further escalate with additional tariffs on China, Trump indicated he was perhaps rethinking his latest actions.

“I have second thoughts about everything,” he said.

The friendly meeting marked a stark difference from Johnson’s earlier opinions on Trump.

In December 2015, Johnson joked that he wouldn’t go to some parts of New York because of the risk of meeting Trump, a man of “stupefying ignorance”.

At the time, Johnson was London’s popular mayor, and Trump a presidential outsider attacking the UK capital on the campaign trail.

US President Donald Trump and Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson before their meeting. Photo: Reuters

But two months later, Johnson threw his considerable charisma behind Brexit, setting in motion a chain of events that would bring the two together as allies at the G7 summit.

The British leader was to also meet with EU Council President Donald Tusk after a bitter verbal spat the day earlier.

The talks could prove to be prickly after the pair exchanged barbs on Saturday over who would be to blame if Britain left the European Union without a deal.

“I still hope that Prime Minister Johnson will not like to go down in history as Mr ‘No Deal’,” Tusk told reporters in Biarritz.

G7 ends in a farce as Donald Trump tweets fury at ‘dishonest’ and ‘weak’ Canada ally Justin Trudeau, rejects summit communique

G7 summits, gathering Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, were once a meeting of like-minded allies. But they’ve become a diplomatic battlefield under Trump.

In a radical break from previous meetings of the elite club, there is to be no final statement.

G7 chiefs are also hoping to soothe tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme and persuade Trump to ease his policy of “maximum pressure”, for example by lifting sanctions on Iranian oil sales to China and India.

Macron is also pushing for action against fires in the Amazon rainforest, despite Brazilian right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro’s angry response to what he sees as outside interference.

Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: trump says johnson is right man for Brexit
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