President Donald Trump is the kind of guy who comes to your house for dinner and then half way through the meal says he hates your food.
Oh, and as he leaves, adds for good measure that he’s not very keen on your curtains either.
He wouldn’t see that as being rude so much as being brutally honest.
Plain, blunt speaking has been the hallmark of his bombastic, in-your-face behaviour throughout his 50-year career as a billionaire real estate tycoon.
I’ve known President Trump a long time and he’s always called things exactly how he sees them in the moment, regardless of any offence they may cause.
President Trump is the kind of guy who comes to your house for dinner and then half way through the meal says he hates your food. I’ve known him a long time and he’s always called things exactly how he sees them in the moment, regardless
This tendency has made him a massive success in business, and helped land him the presidency of the United States.
It’s also made him one of the most divisive and polarising public figures in the history of Planet Earth.
But one thing it’s no longer credible to feel is ‘shock’ when he does it.
He ALWAYS does it.
So spare me all the risible ‘I’ve never been so offended!’ nonsense spewing forth from the usual suspects today at Trump’s tub-thumping tirade against his host Theresa May and her Brexit policy, as he arrived in Britain.
President Trump calls a spade a spade.
We know that, and we can expect that every single day of this extraordinary presidency.
And this morning, he didn’t just call a spade a spade so much as take the spade and smash it all over Theresa May’s political career, reputation and backbone.
He believes the British Prime Minister’s severely watered down new Brexit plan, rubber-stamped with her cabinet at her country home Chequers a week ago, is not actually Brexit because the EU would still retain some control over trade deals.
![Today he didn¿t just call a spade a spade so much as take the spade and smash it all over Theresa May¿s political career, reputation and backbone. Trump said May ignored his advice on how to negotiate Brexit](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/07/13/12/4E31E7D800000578-0-Today_he_didn_t_just_call_a_spade_a_spade_so_much_as_take_the_sp-m-16_1531482887882.jpg)
Today he didn’t just call a spade a spade so much as take the spade and smash it all over Theresa May’s political career, reputation and backbone. Trump said May ignored his advice on how to negotiate Brexit
‘If we do a deal like that,’ Trump told The Sun, ‘we would be dealing with the European Union instead of dealing with the UK so it would probably kill the deal because we have enough difficulty with the European Union. We are cracking down right now on the European Union because they have not treated the United States fairly on trading.’
Trump said May ignored his advice on how to negotiate Brexit.
‘I would have done it much differently. I actually told Theresa May how to do it but she didn’t agree, she didn’t listen to me. She wanted to go a different route.’
Now, it obviously wasn’t particularly tactful for him to say this literally as Marine One, the presidential helicopter, landed at Blenheim Palace for last night’s fancy dinner hosted by the target of his attack.
But that doesn’t mean Trump isn’t right both in his sentiment and his timing.
Full disclosure: I voted Remain. I don’t think Britain should be leaving the EU and wish the 2016 Referendum vote had agreed with me.
But it didn’t.
Instead, a whopping 17.4 million people voted to leave the EU, and they understood that to mean we leave the club and all its rules, seizing back full control of our economy, our borders and our laws.
They understood that because May’s predecessor David Cameron, who was the Prime Minister who called the Referendum, repeatedly made this crystal clear in the run-up to the vote.
A major positive of life after Brexit, we were assured by the politicians who drove the Leave campaign, would be that we could trade completely freely with countries outside the EU and in particular America.
Yet May’s new plan doesn’t allow for that, however she tries to spin it.
As Trump told The Sun: ‘The deal she is striking is a much different deal than the one the people voted on. It was not the deal that was in the referendum.’
No, it’s not.
And no amount of frantic political spinning can change this unarguable fact.
It’s not just Trump who thinks that.
David Davis, May’s own Brexit Secretary, resigned within 48 hours of the plan being ‘agreed’, closely followed by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
They too believe this plan does not amount to Brexit and that it’s a betrayal of the democratic will of the majority who voted for it.
I agree with them, even if personally I hope we end up with a deal so fudged it’s like we never really left.
Just as I also agreed with Trump’s scathing criticism earlier this week of America’s NATO colleagues for not paying their proper bills on defence.
It’s absolutely disgraceful that Germany, the biggest country in Europe, pays just 1.2% of its GDP on defence (compared to America’s 3.8%), yet rakes in billions from Russian gas supplies – empowering Vladimir Putin, who many view as the biggest security threat to Europe.
Trump’s rhetoric may be inflammatory, his tweets may be provocative and occasionally insulting, and some of his policies like the recent immigrant child separation scandal have been disgraceful, but that doesn’t negate his right to criticise his friends when they’re wrong.
![Some of May's staff agree with him. Trump¿s rhetoric may be inflammatory, his tweets may be provocative and occasionally insulting, and some of his policies have been disgraceful, but that doesn¿t negate his right to criticise his friends when they¿re wrong](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/07/13/12/4E3184B700000578-0-image-a-17_1531483067340.jpg)
Some of May’s staff agree with him. Trump’s rhetoric may be inflammatory, his tweets may be provocative and occasionally insulting, and some of his policies have been disgraceful, but that doesn’t negate his right to criticise his friends when they’re wrong
Isn’t that what proper friends so?
I certainly do that to my friends, and I expect them to do the same to me, so long as it is delivered without personal abuse.
Theresa May has boxed herself into a predictably awful place.
Her new Brexit plan is deeply unpopular with everyone – from the EU to Remainers who don’t think she’s gone far enough and Brexiters who don’t think she’s gone far enough.
So as things stand, Britain is heading off an enormous, historic cliff in a few months time with huge new doubt over its ability to use its biggest parachute – a big new trade deal with the U.S. – for a soft, safe landing.
In these circumstances, it’s not rude and offensive of Trump to tell her straight what the reality is – it’s a cold, hard and vitally important truth.
And isn’t there a wondrously delicious irony that all those screaming ‘Don’t be so rude, Mr Trump!’’ are the same ones gleefully supporting the absurd, pathetic 20ft orange baby Trump balloon that flew over Parliament today?
For sheer breath-taking rudeness, mocking the leader of our No1 ally in such a childish, pitiful way takes some beating.
![It's delicious irony that all those screaming ¿Don¿t be so rude, Mr Trump!¿¿ are the same ones supporting the absurd, pathetic 20ft orange baby Trump balloon that flew over Parliament](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/07/13/12/4E3190AA00000578-5950677-image-a-18_1531483149591.jpg)
It’s delicious irony that all those screaming ‘Don’t be so rude, Mr Trump!’’ are the same ones supporting the absurd, pathetic 20ft orange baby Trump balloon that flew over Parliament
Yet it’s entirely consistent with the rank hypocrisy that surrounds so much of the Trump-bashing agenda.
The same people who fiercely defended President Barack Obama when he urged Britain to vote Remain in the referendum are now furiously condemning Trump for ‘sticking his nose into Brexit’.
And the anti-Trump protests today are substantially bigger than anything seen for the recent visits to the same city by President Erdogan of Turkey and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia – two men who make Trump look like a choirboy when it comes to their dictatorial, war-mongering, human rights abusing, women and gay oppressing regimes.
I’m glad President Trump has come to Britain and given my Prime Minister some home truths.
It’s the perfect time for him to do it.
If she has any sense, she’ll pour him a cup of tea and listen to him.