Theresa May on Trump: ‘I never knew what to expect’

Theresa May has taken aim at her successor as British prime minister and at the outgoing U.S. president, arguing that Boris Johnson’s foreign aid cut reduced Britain’s “position of global moral leadership” and saying she “never knew what to expect” from Donald Trump.

Writing in the Daily Mail, May also alluded to the Johnson government’s failure to live up to British values, citing its willingness to break international law via the Internal Market Bill, as well as cuts to foreign aid.

“To lead we must live up to our values,” May wrote. “Threatening to break international law by going back on a treaty we had just signed and abandoning our position of global moral leadership as the only major economy to meet both the 2 percent defence spending target and the 0.7 percent international aid target were not actions which, in my view, raised our credibility in the eyes of the world.”

May’s article, published on the day Joe Biden will be sworn in as U.S. president, hailed his incoming administration as a “golden opportunity” for Britain, arguing “he will be a more predictable and reliable partner for Global Britain.”

She wrote: “With Donald Trump, I never knew what to expect — from being offered, sometimes literally, the hand of friendship to hearing him question core tenets of the transatlantic alliance. When a British prime minister walks out for a joint press conference with the world’s media unsure if the United States president standing next to her will agree that Nato is a bulwark of our collective defence, you know you are living in extraordinary times.”

May called for a change in global politics. “For too long we have been sliding toward absolutism in international affairs: if you are not 100 percent for me then you must be 100 percent against me,” she said. “If the world is to work together to ‘build back better’ then we must all be willing to compromise.”

Asked about May’s op-ed, U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel told TalkRADIO “I just don’t recognize that criticism.” She defended Johnson, saying he had “been a strong leader and a strong advocate of the multinational system.”