Woody Johnson: ‘Between you and me, I think [May] would be a good time.’ Photograph: POOL New/Reuters
Asked whether the state visit promised last year by Theresa May could be rescheduled to coincide with a commemoration of the end of the second world war in May, Johnson told BBC radio: “Between you and me, I think that would be a good time.”
The president’s visit to Britain in July was accompanied by widespread public protests. Although it was not a formal state visit, he met Queen Elizabeth.
Asked if Trump would like to return for a state visit, Johnson said: “I would think the president would be in favour of it and looking forward to it because that was mentioned when he was over here, so if we can do that it would be, I think, a big positive.”
He said a deadlock in Britain’s parliament, which meant it was unclear what shape Brexit would take, meant a solution was necessary. “The country is in need of leadership,” he said.
Johnson reiterated Trump’s view that the US was looking forward to a “quick, very massive bilateral trade deal” after Brexit, but that did not “look possible” under the terms on which the prime minister had agreed a draft deal to leave the EU.
Trump said in November that May’s deal sounded like it would be good for the EU and cast doubt on how that would affect the US’s trading arrangements with the UK.