British PM's Brexit plan may threaten U.S. trade deal: Trump
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is often heaped with praise from his American counterpart, but not now.
President Donald Trump is being highly critical of Johnson's new Brexit deal with the EU, going so far to say it may kill off the chances of a separate bilateral trade deal with the U.S.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:
"We want to do trade with UK, and they want to do trade with us. And to be honest with you, this deal, under certain aspects of the deal - you can't do it, you can't do it, you can't trade. We can't make a trade deal with the UK and we can be, because I think we can do many times the numbers that we're doing right now and certainly much bigger numbers that you're doing under the European Union, I know Boris (Johnson) wants to be very careful with that."
The comments came in an interview with Brexit hardliner Nigel Farage on Britain's LBC radio.
Trump did not specify what in Johnson's plan would prevent a U.S. deal, but claimed that the UK could potentially do five times as much trade with America.
The president has been talking about a new trade deal with Britain for years but it's not clear how much progress has been made.
Trump also weighed in on the upcoming UK election.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:
"If you and he get together it's, you know, an unstoppable force, and Corbyn would be so bad for your country, he'd be so bad, he'd take you in such a bad way. He'd take you into such bad places."
The U.S. president also denied claims by the opposition Labour Party that he wants Britain to put its public healthcare system up for negotiations in any post-Brexit trade talks.
The National Health Service is a treasured institution in the UK. Last June Trump said at a press conference that, quote, "the NHS or anything else" should be up for grabs in a trade deal.
London says it wants to protect the NHS in any dealings with Washington.
