White House Trump says he might meet with Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage during British visit

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he might meet with Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage — pro-Brexit politicians, one of whom is vying to replace outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May — when he visits the U.K. next week.

The president’s comments come days after he said he feels “badly” for May, who announced Friday that she would resign after failing to get Parliament to ratify her deal to exit the European Union.


Trump, who has backed Brexit since his 2016 presidential campaign, told reporters Thursday that he considers Johnson and Farage to be “very good guys” and “very interesting people.” But he refrained from offering support to either Farage or Johnson, the latter of which is making a run for prime minister.

“I mean, they're friends of mine. But I haven't thought about supporting them,” he said. “Maybe it’s not my business to support people. But I have a lot of respect for both of those men.”

Trump’s relationship with May is rocky, and the president has ripped the prime minister’s struggle to deliver a Brexit deal. When Trump visited the U.K. in 2018, he accused the politically vulnerable May of wrecking Brexit and suggested Johnson would make a great prime minister.

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“I think they are big powers over there,” the president said of Johnson and Farage on Thursday. “I think they’ve done a good job.”

Johnson has emerged as the only prospective leader capable of maintaining the support of the coalition of voters who backed the U.K.’s Conservative Party in the last election, according to a recent POLITICO-Hanbury poll.

But Trump offered extra praise to Farage, whose Brexit Party reeled in just under 31 percent of the popular vote in the latest European Parliament election. Farage, the former head of the United Kingdom Independence Party, returned to the British political scene after all but retiring in the wake of the 2016 EU referendum. Farage also has been a supporter of Trump's, at one time joining him on the campaign trail in 2016.

A U.K. official said there hasn’t been any discussion between the administration and No. 10 Downing Street about setting up a meeting for Trump and Johnson. But, the official added, “Obviously what he does in his downtime is up to him.”

“The meetings that the president has in his private time there are a matter for him and the White House,” the official said.

Gabby Orr contributed to this story.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect that Farage is not currently vying for prime minister.