US President Donald Trump made his first official visit to the United Kingdom on July 12, amid wide-scale protests and political controversy involving Trump and the British Prime Minister Theresa May. It was hand-holding and warm words for the two leaders. Trump said at the news conference that their relationship is at “the highest level of special,” but a contentious interview released just hours into the visit tarnished the special relationship between the two countries.

In an exclusive interview with The Sun, Trump told the reporter that Prime Minister May’s Brexit plan would “probably kill” the US-UK trade deal. He also said Boris Johnson would make a “great prime minister”.

May's Brexit plan has been facing oppositions from all sides, including a rebellion from the hard Brexit wing within her party. The conflict came to a climax when the prime minister published a 98-page white paper where she eventually chose to keep the country as close as possible to the EU – two of her ministers, including Johnson, resigned in protest.

Suzanne Lynch, the Washington correspondent for the Irish Times, said May is trying to tell her public that she is delivering for them, but Trump’s visit to the UK further complicates this issue, making the current situation a “nightmare scenario” for May.

“A lot of people are suspicious that kind of Brexit she has now proposed isn’t really leaving, but they’re still going to be subject to EU laws,” Lynch said. “By Donald Trump coming in and saying in his interview with The Sun that Theresa May may not deliver what the people demand, this is exactly what her critics have been saying.”

President Trump later denied that he has criticized May to the newspaper, saying that it had not published nice comments he made about the prime minister. David Smith, the Washington Bureau Chief for The Guardian, found Trump’s change of his tune does not surprise at all. He said saying one thing on Twitter or in interviews and doing something else was indeed, Trump's habit.

“That interview with the Sun newspaper was a bit of a bombshell where he was very indiscreet,” Smith said. “Britain is in a slight head spin and a sense of whiplash as we’ve seen in so many other countries around the world, including the United States itself.”

However, Chris Buskirk, editor and publisher of the conservative website American Greatness, disagreed with Smith, arguing that the questions from the reporter were cheeky, and Trump’s conduct was part of the president’s diplomatic strategy.

“Maybe some direct talk is appropriate here, particularly when it comes to Brexit,” Buskirk said. “I don’t know that he’s achieved anything just yet, but I think he’s been very clear about the long-term goal, that the president would very much like to have a two-party bilateral trade agreement.”

There is no doubt that Trump wants a trade relationship with the UK, but he also wants one with the EU, which is apparently a bigger market. Garret Martin, an American University professorial lecturer at the school of international service, said the relationship between the United States and the UK might not be as special as the president was speaking during the press conference, given the fact that Trump visited 17 other countries before coming to the UK.

“I think he’s a man who looks strategically at these things,” Lynch said. “When it comes to if he had to make a choice, I think he’d be quite willing to go with the EU. We wait and see what happens after Brexit. Yes, he wants to deal with Britain, but I don’t know if he would put that ahead necessarily of a trade deal with the EU.”

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