LONDON — There are many things about British life that President Trump appears to disdain. Last week, he tweeted about the National Health Service in Britain and described it as “going broke and not working.”

But Mr. Trump admires Britain’s libel laws. In January, he spoke about his plans to examine and strengthen the libel laws in the United States. “You can’t say things that are false, knowingly false, and be able to smile as money pours into your bank account,” Mr. Trump told reporters after the publication of “Fire and Fury,” Michael Wolff’s controversial account of the Trump White House.

For years, Mr. Trump claimed that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States. He insisted, against all evidence, that his inauguration drew the largest crowds ever. One imagines such a man might know a thing or two about “saying things that are knowingly false, and being able to smile as money pours into your bank account.” In Mr. Trump’s view, however, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution is too permissive, whereas “in England,” libel claimants “have a good chance of winning.”

I live in London, a city that was once called the libel capital of the world. Oligarchs, despots and billionaires from across the world would regularly land in London to try to silence their critics. The Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky sued Forbes magazine in 2000 after it characterized him as a thug and a crook. He was unlikely to have won his case in the United States, where Forbes is published. He sued instead in London. British judges ruled that since the magazine was available on the internet and could be read by Britons, Mr. Berezovsky had the right to sue here.