LONDON: The US ambassador to Britain said he expects Donald Trump to visit the UK in the new year despite his recent Twitter row with Theresa May.
Woody Johnson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the disagreement was “probably misinterpreted”.
Mrs May had said Mr Trump was “wrong” to share videos posted by the far-right group Britain First, prompting an online backlash from the US president.
Mr Johnson said Mr Trump’s relationship with the UK was still “very very good”.
He said Mr Trump had not yet set a date for the visit – which could be scaled back to a working trip, where the president would not meet the Queen.
“Absolutely, I think he will come,” he told Today. “It hasn’t been officially announced, but I hope he does. “I think it’s a very very good relationship,” he said.
Speaking of Mrs May’s visit to the Oval Office in January, he said: “The prime minister was his first visitor, the first official foreign leader to visit.”
There were calls for a reciprocal visit to be abandoned, after Mr Trump retweeted three anti-Muslim videos last month.
When a Downing Street spokesman said he had been “wrong” to do so the president hit back, telling Mrs May to focus on “destructive” terrorism in the UK.
Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, opposes the visit and said British people deserved a special relationship that works “both ways”.
“By sharing and promoting videos by Britain First he’s undermined our democratic process and put at risk people in our communities,” she told Radio 4. “He didn’t listen to our own prime minister who said this is not acceptable.”
