Insanity on display...

Trump claims he didn’t criticize Theresa May

By STEPHANIE MURRAY

President Donald Trump denied he criticized British Prime Minister Theresa May in a U.K. tabloid, calling the explosive report “fake news” at a joint news conference on Friday.

“I didn’t criticize the prime minister. I have a lot of respect for the prime minister and unfortunately there was a story that was done which was generally fine, but it didn’t put in what I said about the prime minister,” Trump said. “And I said tremendous things.”

Trump was still at a gala thrown by May on Thursday night when The Sun newspaper released Trump’s incendiary interview. In the Rupert Murdoch-owned paper, Trump accused the politically vulnerable May of wrecking the Brexit deal, and said former British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson would make a great prime minister.

Regardless, the two put on a united front at a press conference the next morning. Trump said the tabloid cover story did not share his full comments about the prime minister.

“Fortunately we tend to record stories now so we have it for your enjoyment if you would like it. But we record when we deal with reporters. It's called fake news and we solve a lot of problems with the good old recording instrument. But what happens is that the prime minister, as I just said, she's going to make a decision as to what she's going do,” Trump said.

Both leaders quickly pivoted to Trump’s favored issue: trade.

“The only thing I ask of Theresa is that we make sure we can trade, that we don't have restrictions, because we want to trade with the U.K., and the U.K. wants to trade with us. We're by far their biggest trading partner and we have, you know, just a tremendous opportunity to double, triple, quadruple that,” Trump said.

In his interview with The Sun, Trump warned a U.S.-U.K. trade deal would be unlikely if May maintained close ties with the European Union.

“As you’ve heard from the president, the United States is keen for us, we're keen to work with them and we will do a trade deal with them and others around the rest of the world,” May said.