Ignore the “scorn and condescension from British politicians and commentators”, says former Conservative leadership contender Michael Gove in The Times. According to Gove, who interviewed America’s new president last week, Trump has “nothing but generous sentiments for a nation he believes will be his strongest ally”. Trump also believes that “Brexit is going to end up being a great thing”. As a result, he pledged that he’s going to work hard to get a trade deal with the UK “done quickly and done properly”.
“If it has been a nervous few months trying to work out what a Trump presidency will mean for Britain, the news turns out to be good,” says Tim Stanley in The Daily Telegraph. While Trump may be “cool towards Europe”, he “admires Brexit” – which means that “we have a chance to matter again”. Indeed, if we play our cards right we could end up “on friendly terms with the new emperor of the free world”. While Brexit might have previously appeared “eccentric, even risky”, it now “looks prophetic”.
Trump’s apparent enthusiasm for a trade deal “should be welcomed”, agrees The Independent. After all, “it is plainly better than being at the back of the queue”, as President Obama promised Britain would be if it voted for Brexit. However, we should take Trump’s promises “with an ocean’s worth of salt”, reckons the New Statesman’s Stephen Bush. Forget his rhetoric; look at his actions. Already, he has “threatened to hit BMW with sanctions over its decision to put a factory in Mexico, not the United States”.
Similarly, “the people he is appointing to fill key trade posts” are “not free traders or anything like it”. As a result, says The Guardian’s Rafael Behr, “it is safe to presume that the non-negotiable terms of that deal will be total vassalage to US corporate interests. It will require a surrender of economic sovereignty every bit as great as that involved in EU membership, with none of the accompanying diplomatic clout.”
Deal or no deal, “the spectacle of her erstwhile leadership rival winning the ear of the most powerful man in America, while she has yet to secure a firm date for a face-to-face meeting, can’t have been welcome to May”, says Heather Stewart in The Guardian. It also demonstrated that Gove “remains a formidably well-connected political player”. With George Osborne rumoured to be “quietly aiding and abetting some of his rebellious parliamentary colleagues”, the PM risks “reaping the consequences of throwing so many of her colleagues onto the political scrapheap”.