Trump Gives London The Finger

• Trump doesn’t think that he and the U.K. Prime Minister, David Cameron, are going to get along if he becomes the next president.
• Cameron made comments earlier that Donald Trump was “divisive, stupid, and wrong” for calling for a temporary ban on Muslims.
• Trump also commented about upcoming referendum for Britain to leave EU, saying that if he were from Britain he would want to leave as well.

Donald Trump said he is unlikely to have a good relationship with U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron if he becomes the next U.S. president because of Mr. Cameron’s earlier criticism of him.

“It looks like we’re not going to have a very good relationship, who knows,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with ITV News, which aired Monday.

Mr. Cameron’s spokesman responded that the prime minister stood by earlier comments that Mr. Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee, was “divisive, stupid and wrong” for calling for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S.

He added, however, that Mr. Cameron would work with whoever is president and said he was committed to maintaining the special relationship between the U.K. and the U.S.

He also said criticism from Sadiq Khan, London’s newly elected mayor and the first Muslim to hold the job, was nasty and offensive. Mr. Khan had called the Republican presidential nominee’s view of Islam ignorant and said his comments make both the U.K. and the U.S. less safe.

“I think they’re very rude statements and frankly, tell him I will remember those statements,” Mr. Trump said.

With Britain, less than six weeks away from a national referendum on whether to stay in the European Union or leave, Mr. Trump in the interview called the 28-member bloc bureaucratic and difficult.

“I think it if I were from Britain, I would probably not want it. I’d want to go back to a different system,” Mr. Trump said.

Mr. Trump’s comments come as more than 300 business leaders called for Britain to leave the EU, saying EU regulations have undermined the competitiveness of U.K. businesses. In a letter published in the Daily Telegraph, the business leaders said British businesses will grow faster and create more jobs if the U.K. exits the bloc.

Boris Johnson, former mayor of London and one of the key politicians campaigning for a British exit from the bloc, on Monday said the EU was like a pair of underwear, or “knickers,” that didn’t fit.

”It makes me think of some badly designed undergarment that has now become too tight in some places–far too tight, far too constrictive–and dangerously loose in other places,” Mr. Johnson said.

On the other side of the debate, Treasury Chief George Osborne on Monday said that reports in the past few days from the Bank of England and International Monetary Fund made very clear that Brexit would have high economic costs. Fitch Ratings also weighed in Monday, saying a British exit from the EU would weigh on other EU economies and increase political risks in Europe.

“Leaving the EU is a one-way ticket to a poorer Britain,” Mr. Osborne said in a speech at Stansted Airport, northeast of London. He said leaving the EU and falling back on the default World Trade Organization rules would be disastrous for the economy.

Mr. Cameron, in a Monday op-ed in the Daily Mirror newspaper, said a British exit from the EU would devalue the British pound and therefore make the price of imported food more expensive for people.

“It’s my steadfast belief leaving Europe would be a national error,” he said.

Source: The Wall Street Journal