Boris Johnson Flies to US for Talks With Trump Team

PM calls Trump remarks 'unacceptable'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 9, 2017 12:33 AM CST
Boris Johnson Flies to US for Talks With Trump Team
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson attends a Mediterranean Dialogues Summit in Rome last month.   (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

"The only reason I wouldn't go to some parts of New York is the real risk of meeting Donald Trump," Boris Johnson once said—but that was 13 months ago, before he became Britain's top diplomat and Trump became president-elect. Johnson was in New York over the weekend for what officials say were "positive but frank" talks with top members of Trump's transition team, the BBC reports. Trump has met with United Kingdom Independence Party leader Nigel Farage at least three times since the election but this was the transition team's first face-to-face meeting with a British government minister. Johnson is due to meet congressional leaders including Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell on Monday.

The Guardian notes that while Johnson strongly criticized Trump before the election, once accusing him of "betraying a quite stupefying ignorance," he changed his tune after the election, calling for an end to the "whinge-o-rama" over the president-elect. While Johnson was in New York, Prime Minister Theresa May spoke to Sky News, saying Trump's remarks about women were "unacceptable," but noting that he had apologized for them. "But the relationship that the UK has with the United States is about something much bigger than just the relationship between the two individuals as president and prime minister," she said. Hours earlier, Trump tweeted that he was looking forward to meeting May later this year, adding: "Britain, a longtime US ally, is very special!" (More Boris Johnson stories.)

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