Theresa May and Trump talk Brexit, Putin at the White House
President Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May gave a joint press conference Friday, Mr. Trump’s first with a foreign leader since taking office last week.
After both reaffirmed the special relationship between the U.S. and U.K., the two leaders took questions from a handful of reporters for about 19 minutes.
President Trump was pressed about his upcoming phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and whether he is considering lifting sanctions against Russia. May was similarly questioned about Russia and the U.K.’s approach Putin.
Mr. Trump also fielded a question about his conversation Friday morning with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, who on Thursday cancelled a visit to the U.S. that had been scheduled for next week. Peña Nieto’s decision followed Mr. Trump’s signing of an executive order calling for the immediate construction of a border wall along the southern U.S. border, which the White House has promised Mexico will pay for.
The two leaders discussed other foreign policy questions, including trade between the countries especially in light of the Brexit vote splitting the U.K. from the European Union.
Read below for the highlights from Friday’s press conference:
Brexit
Mr. Trump praised last year’s shocking Brexit vote, which took the U.K. out of the European Union.
“I said Brexit is going to happen,” Mr. Trump recalled predicting. “And I was scorned in the press for making that prediction.”
“I think Brexit’s going to be a wonderful thing for your country,” he continued, adding that “you’re going to have the people that you want in your country.”
May said earlier in the press conference that the two leaders were working on laying the groundwork for trade deals between the nations.
Russian sanctions and Vladimir Putin
Mr. Trump, when asked about his upcoming phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, said “we’ll see what happens.” He said he had “hear[d] a call was set up” between the two.
Pressed on whether he would lift sanctions against Russia, the president said it was still “very early” to be talking about sanctions.
He said “ideally,” the two countries would have “a great relationship,” but he acknowledged that’s not always possible. The president said he doesn’t know Putin and so would keep an open mind when dealing with him.
“I’ve had many times where I thought I’d get along with people and I don’t like them at all,” said, eliciting laughter in the room. “And I’ve had some where I didn’t think I was going to have much of a relationship and it turned out to be a great relationship.”
But Theresa May resolved to continue sanctioning Russia until the conflict in eastern Ukraine are resolved.
“As far as the U.K. is concerned,” May said, “we have been very clear that we want to see the Minsk agreement fully implemented.”
Torture
Mr. Trump addressed the use of torture in interrogating terror suspects, doubling down on his belief that such methods “work.”
He did, however, say that he would defer to Defense Secretary James Mattis on crafting interrogation policies.
“We have a great general,” Mr. Trump said. “He has stated publicly that he does not necessarily believe in torture or waterboarding or however you want to define it.”
“I don’t necessarily agree but I will tell you that he will override because I am giving him that power,” he said.
Mattis, for his part, has said that he would continue to follow current law on enhanced interrogation practices, which former President Obama outlawed in 2009.
U.S. relationship with Mexico
On his recent phone call Friday morning with President Enrique Peña Nieto, who cancelled his scheduled trip to the U.S., Mr. Trump said the two had a “very good” conversation.
“I have been very strong on Mexico,” he said, promising that Mexico would no longer “beat us to a pulp” on trade and on the “soft and weak” border between the two neighbors.
During the talk, which lasted for “about an hour,” Mr. Trump said they discussed “working on a fair relationship and a new relationship.”
Asked if May was concerned about the tensions between the U.S. and Mexico, the British prime minister said it was not her concern.
“The relationship with the U.S. and Mexico is a matter for the U.S. and Mexico,” May said.
Trust
In response to a question about how the British and American people could trust Mr. Trump’s policy stances considering his many switches in viewpoints, the president charged that “I really don’t change my position very much.”
In another aside, Mr. Trump told a reporter, “I’m not as brash as you might think.”