Trump supports the break-up of the European Union in the wake of Brexit: US Ambassador to EU
Donald Trump supports the break-up of the European Union in the wake of Brexit, an outgoing US ambassador has suggested, the Daily Mail reports.
Anthony Gardner, who is departing as ambassador to the EU, said that senior figures in the president-elect’s transition team had been asking EU officials which countries will follow Britain in voting to leave the bloc.
Mr Trump has made no secret of his support for Brexit and has repeatedly praised Nigel Farage.
“To think that by supporting fragmentation of Europe we would be advancing our interests would be sheer folly,” he said. “It’s lunacy.”
He added: “For us to be the cheerleaders of Brexit and to be encouraging Brexit Mark 2, Mark 3, is the height of folly.”
Describing calls to EU institutions from Mr Trump’s aides in recent weeks, Mr Gardner said: “That was the one question that was asked – basically, ‘What’s the next country to leave?’ Which is kind of suggesting that the place is about to fall apart.
“It’s just reflective of the general perception, a misperception, a perception that Nigel Farage is presumably disseminating in Washington and it’s a caricature.”
Meanwhile, Mr Trump attacked the former MI6 operative who prepared a dossier claiming Russia had explosive intelligence on him as a “failed spy”.
Mr Trump said Christopher Steele, who spent two decades with the Secret Intelligence Service, collaborated with his political rivals to concoct “phoney allegations”.
He dismissed the alleged conspirators as “sleazebag political operatives”, noting that Russia has denied collecting compromising information about him.
Theresa May was forced to distance herself from the contents after the Russian embassy in London suggested Mr Steele may still be working for the British Government.
The Prime Minister insisted that the Government had nothing to do with the “dirty dossier”.
– A rare bottle of whisky signed by Mr Trump sold for £6,000 at auction in Glasgow – more than double the expected price. The 26-year-old Glendronach was bottled in 2012 to mark the opening of Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire.
