The U.K. prime minister's former communications chief has said that President Donald Trump should not give Theresa May a hard time because she is the only one who defends him in meetings with other European leaders.
Katie Perrior, who was May's top adviser until April 2017, also said that people in the U.K. view Trump with "amusement."
The Washington Post reported how Trump took a harsh tone with May when she called the president to congratulate him on the U.S. midterm election results while he was on Air Force One en route to Paris.
Trump reportedly criticized May's approach to Brexit, Britain's support of the Iran deal, and also took issue with post-Brexit trade deals that Britain is trying to strike. British sources told The Daily Telegraph that the U.S. president was in a "bad mood" and acting like "Trump the Grump" during their conversation last Friday.
Perrior told CNN that Trump's treatment of the British prime minister was not acceptable because May valued the trans-Atlantic relationship.
"President Trump should not be berating Theresa May and giving her a hard time on the telephone. He should be backing her up because she will go into the European Union and defend him when nobody else will.
"She believes in our special relationship, she believes that as we leave the EU and turn towards America and the rest of the world, we need free trade with these countries and she wants to do deals.
"Doing deals with a man that keeps on ranting and raving all the time is probably not a smart idea. He needs to get back to the table and calm down," she said.
A government source told The Telegraph that Trump's view on Brexit involved a "Farage-Bannon line which is in his head and we know that's his mentality. But that's fine, we live with that."
This refers to fierce criticism from ex-Ukip leader Nigel Farage and Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, about May's Brexit proposal known as the Chequers plan.
When asked what people in the U.K. think of the way that Trump communicates, Perrior said that British people "view him with amusement."
"We are amused by him. His public polling ratings…I would hazard a guess they would be pretty low. You know, the kind of stocking presents we get at Christmas is Donald Trump toilet paper, that should give you an indication of the way they view him," she told CNN.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Brendan Cole is a Newsweek Senior News Reporter based in London, UK. His focus is Russia and Ukraine, in particular ... Read more
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