Donald Trump said Sunday he supports Britain’s departure from the European Union just five days ahead of a nationwide referendum there on whether to stay or go.
“I would personally be more inclined to leave, for a lot of reasons like having a lot less bureaucracy,” he told the Sunday Times of London. “But I am not a British citizen. That is just my opinion.”
His Brexit backing comes three days after a British member of Parliament, Jo Cox, was allegedly murdered by Thomas Mair, who declared “death to traitors, freedom for Britain” during a court appearance Saturday.
Trump said he would try to maintain friendly relationships with foreign governments if elected, including with British Prime Minister David Cameron, who has called Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims coming into the US “divisive, stupid and wrong.”
Cameron, who supports remaining in the EU, wrote in Britain’s Sunday Telegraph that leaving would cause a “probably recession.” The most recent poll on the referendum showed 45 percent of Britons favor remaining, while 42 percent are for the Brexit.
Trump, whose mother was Scottish, opined in May that the UK would be “better off” without the EU because “migration has been a horrible thing for Europe.”
At the time, he said his public view on the matter was not a “recommendation. Just my feeling.”
With Post Wire Services