In a stark contrast to a recent warning from President Obama, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump said Great Britain would not be sent to the back of the line on trade if voters there approve a referendum next month to withdraw from the European Union.
“I don’t think they’ll be hurt at all,” Mr. Trump said in an interview for ITV’s “Good Morning Britain. “They’ll have to make their own deal.”
“Britain’s been such a great ally that they went into things that they shouldn’t have gone into like, as an example, going into Iraq,” he said. “With me, they’ll always be treated fantastically well.”
“I don’t want to say front or anything else — I’m going to treat everybody fairly — but it wouldn’t make any difference to me whether they were in the EU or not,” Mr. Trump said.
“You would certainly not be back of the queue — that I can tell you,” he said.
British voters will decide next month whether to support a referendum on whether to pull out of the European Union.
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During an overseas visit in April, Mr. Obama had warned that the U.K. would be at “the back of the queue” in seeking trade deals if it left the alliance.
“I think if I were from Britain, I would probably not want it. I’d want to go back to a different system,” Mr. Trump said. “A lot of what’s happened — and I’ve dealt with the European Union. It’s very, very bureaucratic. It’s very, very difficult.”
“Personally, in terms of Britain, I would say, ’What do you need it for?’ ” Mr. Trump said. “But again, let people make up their own mind.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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