We can do a UK-U.S. trade deal, says Trump after earlier criticism

By Jeff Mason and William James

CHEQUERS, England (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he looked forward to finalising a post-Brexit trade deal with Britain, striking a contrasting tone to a newspaper interview when he said Prime Minister Theresa May's strategy would kill such an agreement.

"We want to trade with the UK and the UK wants to trade with us," Trump said at a press conference with May in the garden of her official country residence Chequers.

Last week at the same location, May finally won agreement for her Brexit strategy from her cabinet but within days, two senior ministers quit, which Trump said earlier in the week had left Britain in turmoil.

 

In an interview published just hours before the two leaders held talks, Trump chided the "very unfortunate" results of the prime minister's strategy for negotiating Britain's departure from the European Union.

"If they do a deal like that, we would be dealing with the European Union instead of dealing with the UK, so it will probably kill the deal," Trump told the Sun newspaper. "I would have done it much differently. I actually told Theresa May how to do it, but she didn't listen to me."

Asked about the interview, Trump said he did not criticise the prime minister and he had a lot of respect for her.

May likewise glossed over the comments in the Sun.

"We agreed today that as the UK leaves the European Union we will pursue an ambitious U.S.-UK free trade agreement," she said. "The Chequers agreement reached last week provides the platform for Donald and me to pursue an ambitious deal that works for both countries right across our economies."

As they spoke, thousands of protesters marched against Trump through central London, one of more than 100 demonstrations planned against the president during his four-day visit.

While Trump's trip was not a full state visit, he has been given red carpet treatment and is scheduled to have tea later with Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle, where her grandson Prince Harry married U.S. actress Meghan Markle in May.

(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Michael Holden, editing by Larry King, Kevin Liffey and David Stamp)