TRUMP BACKS 'GREAT TRADE DEAL' FOR BREXIT BRITAIN

US President hopes 'tariffs won't be necessary' with 'wonderful' UK

- Martyn Brown

DONALD Trump predicted a "great trade deal" with "wonderful" Britain last night as he praised Brexit.

The US President called Sir Keir Starmer a "special man" in their extraordinary White House love-in, above, saying: "We could very well with the rest of the world. Mr Trump said that he was hoping to seal a trade deal with Britain "as quickly as it can be done".

He continued: "We're going to end up with a very good trade agreement for both countries.

"We'll have something, maybe in terms of possibilities, agreed very shortly. But we're going to make some great trade agreements with the UK ...and it'll happen very quickly." Asked if the PM had convinced him not to impose tariffs on the UK, Mr Trump said: "He tried. He was working hard. He earned whatever the hell they pay him over there, but he tried." Mr Trump, who had greeted Sir Keir outside the West Wing, accepted the King's invitation of an "unprecedented" second state visit to the UK and said that Britain was America's "No1 ally".

But he is likely to have provoked some fury by saying he is "inclined to go along with" the UK's Chagos Islands deal. The handing over of sovereignty to Mauritius - including the Diego Garcia military airbase jointly used by the US has been described by some critics as a "surrender".

Highlighting Brexit, after he had accused the EU of "screwing" America, the president said relations with the UK were "warm".

He went on: "I think we have just a great relationship...Frankly what they did was the right thing at the time.