Noah Pransky
“Big Trade Deal is possible once UK gets rid of the shackles,” President Donald Trump tweeted Monday night from London, referencing Britain’s imminent exit from the European Union.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1135602452059906050
The tweet comes on the heels of the president’s endorsements of Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson, two U.K. leaders steering the country in the direction of the nuclear “No Deal” Brexit option.
For many reasons, the world is nervous about Britain exiting the E.U. without trade and immigration deals in-place. The fallout, on so many different fronts, could so significant that Europe’s economic chaos is felt by the rest of the world too.
The White House later issued a milder-toned statement, in what is becoming a regular routine, attempting to clarify the president’s tenor on Brexit: “President Trump supports Brexit being accomplished in a way that will not affect global economic and financial stability while also securing independence to the United Kingdom.”
With so much economic instability on the Mexican, Chinese, and Iranian fronts — just to name a few — the last thing the Trump administration needs ahead of 2020 is turmoil in London wreaking havoc on the world economy.
However, it’s possible the president’s excitement for his “Big Trade Deal” with the U.K. was born from a sense of opportunity. Would a No-Deal exit from the E.U. leave Britain in enough turmoil that the U.S. could secure new trade concessions from its longtime ally?
Trump, a bare-knuckles, high-stakes negotiator, is clearly not afraid of trying to leverage every opportunity to advance the priorities of his administration and the United States.
The only risk of this strategy is the U.S. ultimately needs the U.K. to thrive to keep the world economy chugging along. After all, there’s no domestic policy or trade deal that will insulate the United States — or the Trump 2020 campaign — from major disruptions abroad.
