President Trump is in Scotland, playing golf and meeting with European leaders. When he arrived, the most transparent president in history talked with the press. He had advice for Europeans. The London Times reports:
Speaking to reporters after landing at Prestwick airport on Friday evening, Trump said: “On immigration, you better get your act together or you’re not going to have Europe anymore. You got to get your act together.
“You know, last month, we had nobody entering our country. Nobody. Shut it down.”
Referring to his predecessor, Joe Biden, Trump added: “We took out a lot of bad people that got there with Biden.
“Biden was a total stiff. And what he allowed to happen, but you’re allowing it to happen to your countries. And you got to stop this horrible invasion that’s happening to Europe. Many countries in Europe.
“Some people, some leaders have not let it happen. And they’re not getting the proper credit they should. I could name them to you right now, but I’m not going to embarrass the other ones. But stop. This immigration is killing Europe.”
Where would Trump get that idea? Maybe from reading the London Times.
Trump’s comments come after multiple demonstrations, some violent, were held this month outside a hotel used to house asylum seekers in Epping, Essex, after a migrant was charged with sexually assaulting a schoolgirl.
Large numbers of police have been deployed because it is feared the protests may escalate and spread to other parts of the country.
The authorities don’t worry about “migrants” raping children, they worry about people protesting the raping of children by migrants. Thus making Trump’s point.
Trump also talked about trade:
Saying that the UK trade deal was “concluded”, Trump described the trip to Scotland as “more of a celebration than a workout” and “a great opportunity to meet with a lot of people”.
He said: “We’re going to do some great things. I’ll be meeting with the EU on Sunday, and we’ll be working on a deal, we’ll see if we make a deal. Ursula [von der Leyen] will be here, highly respected woman.”
Regarding Starmer, Trump told a reporter: “I like your prime minister. He’s slightly more liberal than I am, as you’ve probably heard. But he’s a good man, he got a trade deal done. And they’ve been working on this deal for 12 years. He got it done, it’s a good deal. It’s a good deal for the UK.”
He added: “We’re meeting with the European Union. And that would be actually the biggest deal of them all if we make it.”
Trump’s relentlessly upbeat approach to trade seems to be bearing fruit. One more thing: Trump is generally complimentary toward the people he is negotiating with. He says nice things about people who are far apart from him on the political spectrum, like Starmer and von der Leyen. But my guess is that he genuinely likes them.
Trump has spent his life negotiating with people whose interests are adverse to his. That’s the whole point of negotiation, to reconcile adverse interests. He doesn’t take it personally, and it isn’t hard for him to respect his negotiating partners and understand their point of view. In fact, that is indispensable if you are going to be a successful negotiator.
It occurs to me that in this regard, Trump is quite different from most of his predecessors and most world leaders. His lifelong experience in dealing with rivals and opponents is fundamentally not ideological, but rather represents a rational search for accommodation and mutual self-interest. So far, that mindset appears to be working very well, and I, for one, find it refreshing.
