President Trump said Tuesday that people are calling the United Kingdom’s new prime minister, Boris Johnson, “Britain Trump,” praising the new leader as a “good man.”
“We have a really good man who’s going to be the prime minister of the U.K. now, Boris Johnson. Good man, he’s tough, and he’s smart,” Trump said, addressing the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA.
“They’re saying ‘Britain Trump.’ They call him Britain Trump, and people are saying that’s a good thing. They like me over there. That’s what they wanted. That’s what they need.”
{mosads}Twenty-six percent of British people surveyed approve of the job performance of U.S. leadership, according to a June Gallup poll. According to YouGov, 21 percent of British people have a positive opinion of Trump.
Trump congratulated Johnson on Twitter earlier Tuesday, saying “he will be great!” Johnson is the U.K.’s former foreign secretary and a staunch Brexit supporter. He beat current Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt in the Conservative Party’s leadership race to replace outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May.
Trump has also praised Johnson in the past, telling The Sun earlier this year that the two-term London mayor would “do a very good job” as prime minister.
“I like him. I have always liked him. I don’t know that he is going to be chosen, but I think he is a very good guy, a very talented person,” Trump said in May.