WATCH: Donald Trump labels Boris Johnson 'Britain Trump' who will 'get it done' as PM
4 min read
Donald Trump has labelled Boris Johnson “Britain Trump” and claimed he will “get it done” as Prime Minister.
Just hours after his victory in the Tory leadership contest, the US President showered him in compliments, saying “he’s tough and he’s smart” and “he’s going to do a good job”.
But in comments set to go down less well in Mr Johnson’s camp, Mr Trump also praised Nigel Farage and said “he is going to work well with Boris”.
It came as the incoming Prime Minister addressed Tory MPs in the House of Commons following his victory over Jeremy Hunt in the race to replace Theresa May.
Speaking at the 1922 Committee he received a rapturous welcome, but when asked if would be calling an early election said he was “not inf favour of one”, but failed to rule it out.
Meanwhile at the Turning Point USA conference in Washington DC, Mr Trump said on stage: “We have a really good man who’s going to be the Prime Minister of the UK now, Boris Johnson.
“Good man. He’s tough and he’s smart. They’re saying ‘Britain Trump’, they’re calling him Britain Trump.
“And people are saying that’s a good thing. They like me over there. That’s what they wanted. That’s what they need. Its what they need.
“He’ll get it done. Boris is good, he’s going to do a good job.”
Nigel Farage was said to be in the audience, with Mr Trump saying of the Brexit Party leader: '‘He got 32% of the vote from nowhere over in the UK. Nigel, thank you Nigel. He did a great job.
Then adding: “I know he is going to work well with Boris. They are going to do some tremendous things.”
Last week Mr Johnson categorially ruled out any sort of pact with Mr Farage at the final leadership hustings.
Today he arrived at the 1922 Committee, flanked by Home Secretary Sajid Javid, and did not speak to the waiting reporters outside.
He received sustained cheering, table banging and wall thumping from the MPs inside, with a Brexiteer saying as she felt the “clouds have been lifted”.
But Keith Simpson accused him of “just chucking out policies”, saying his election meant the “circus has come to town”, walking out of the meeting because he “couldn’t take any more of it”.
And he accused his colleagues who want a job in Mr Johnson’s cabinet of sitting there “trying not to look like ambitious little s**ts."
But former education secretary Nicky Morgan said the performance was “vintage Boris”, and “he makes the party feel better about itself”.
Leading Brexiteer Steve Baker agreed, saying: “That was the Conservative Party slamming together in unity - and ostentatiously so.”
Mr Baker also said he was “supremely confident” about Brexit: “Because I know Boris Johnson wants to be a great British Prime Minister,
“And the only way he's going to be a great British Prime Minister is if we leave the EU on the 31st October.”
Health secretary and former leadership candidate Matt Hancock said afterwards: "One of the reasons I backed Boris is he is good at bringing people together, and he did that in just half an hour with the Parliamentary party.
"He left everybody feeling good and positive and cheerful."
Deputy chair of the ERG group of Eurosceptic Tories, Mark Francois, said it was a “very uplifting speech”, but it “wasn’t knockabout” and Mr Johnson had showed he was serious.
And Nigel Evans, who sits on the 1922 executive, said he made a joke quoting a different American president – George W Bush.
“He said he wanted to support small businesses, he said he wanted to support entrepreneurs,” Mr Evans said.
“After all, as George Bush once said, the French they don’t even have a word for entrepreneur.”
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