Donald Trump Says He Will Work Well With Whoever Wins U.K. Election Because 'I'm a Very Easy Person to Work With'
President Donald Trump has claimed he "can work with anybody" and will be staying out of the upcoming U.K. election, which is scheduled for December 12.
Speaking from London, at a press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Trump suggested that he did not want to comment on the British general election in order to avoid complicating the issue.
"It's going to be a very important election for this great country. But I have no thoughts on it," the president, who is in the U.K. for the NATO summit in London from December 3-4, said.
However, Trump went on to praise incumbent British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, with whom the president confirmed he is due to meet during his time in London.
"I think Boris [Johnson] is very capable and I think he'll do a good job," the president said, before adding that he would also work well with opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, of the Labour Party. "I can work with anyone. I'm a very easy person to work with," he added, according to Pool reports.
Trump had previously said the election of Corbyn would be "so bad" for the U.K. during an interview on British radio station LBC in October.
And in recent days, Corbyn has suggested that Britain's National Health Service (NHS) is being put "up for sale" as part of secret trade talks between the U.S. and U.K.—stoking fears that a post-Brexit trade deal between the two countries would provide full market access for American pharmaceutical companies.
"Labour will never ever treat our NHS as a bargaining chip in trade talks with anybody. We will never let Donald Trump get his hands on our NHS. Because our NHS is not for sale," Corbyn said, as reported by British newspaper The Mirror.
The prospect of a meeting between Johnson and Trump had been up in the air amid concerns from Johnson's Conservative Party that a meeting with the president could damage his chances at the polls, Bloomberg reported.
However, the president confirmed that such a meeting would take place during his visit to the U.K.—although a time and location have not yet been confirmed.
During his press conference with Stoltenberg, the president also praised the NATO secretary, thanking him for his work and commenting: "I think he is doing a fantastic job, I am a big fan," while Stoltenberg told Trump: "Your leadership on defense spending is having a real impact."
The recent book A Warning, written by an anonymous White House insider, claims that Trump has frequently spoken of his aversion to the Cold War-era alliance and that the U.S. was "getting raped" because other countries are spending far less to be a part of it.
The chart below, provided by Statista, shows the military spending of each NATO country.
