Less than 24 hours before Donald Trump is set to touch down in the United Kingdom on his first state visit to the country, the US President has sent Britain’s political establishment into a spin — telling the UK it should “walk away” from Brexit talks if the European Union does not give it what it wants.
“If you don’t get the deal you want, if you don’t get a fair deal, then you walk away,” the President told British newspaper the Sunday Times, ahead of his three-day state visit, which kicks off on Monday.
Trump said if he were in the UK’s position he “wouldn’t pay” the $50 billion Brexit divorce bill, adding “it’s a tremendous number.”
The President also repeated his suggestion — previously made to Prime Minister Theresa May — that the UK should sue the EU. When asked how this would work, Trump said he would have put “on the table” the “mistakes made by the EU that cost the UK a lot of money and a lot of harm.”
Trump’s visit comes at a delicate time in British politics, with Westminster in a deadlock over Brexit negotiations and the clock ticking towards an October 31 exit date