Donald Trump said Britain’s implementation of Brexit has been “sloppy” ahead of his second state visit to the UK in September.
But the US president said it is “getting straightened out” and heaped praise on Sir Keir Starmer.
“I really like the prime minister a lot, even though he’s a liberal,” Mr Trump declared.
Asked by the BBC whether Britain has made the most of its departure from the EU, he added: “No, I think it has been on the sloppy side, but it is getting straightened out.”
Mr Trump said Sir Keir “did a good trade deal with us, which a lot of countries have not been able to do”.
The US president’s attack on the success of Brexit so far puts him at odds with successive Conservative prime ministers who oversaw Britain’s withdrawal from the EU.
Politicians from Boris Johnson and Theresa May to Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have played key roles in the implementation of the 2016 referendum result.
But Mr Trump’s biggest ally in the UK, Nigel Farage, has also declared that “Brexit has failed” and Britain has “not benefitted from Brexit economically”.
And Mr Trump’s comments follow a series of recent polls revealing British voters’ support for Brexit is at an all-time low.
The US president’s comments on Brexit come just months before King Charles will welcome Mr Trump to the UK from 17 to 19 September on an unprecedented second state visit.
Mr Trump and his wife Melania will be hosted at Windsor Castle during the visit and will also appear alongside Sir Keir.
But the US president will not enjoy the chance to address MPs and peers, as Emmanuel Macron did during a recent state visit, as parliament will be in recess while the parties hold their annual conferences.
“I think let them go and have a good time,” Mr Trump said when asked whether he was disappointed not to be addressing MPs.
Asked what he wanted to achieve on the visit, Mr Trump said: “I just want to have a good time and respect King Charles, because he is a great gentleman.”
Mr Trump was also asked about his increasingly tense relationship with Vladimir Putin amid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, signalling he is running out of patience with the dictator.
The US president said he is not “done” with Putin, but that he is frustrated after stalled efforts to force a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv.
Speaking in the Oval Office on Monday alongside Nato secretary general Mark Rutte, Mr Trump said he’s “very unhappy” with Russia and its president Vladimir Putin, and pledged to impose what he described as “very severe tariffs” on Moscow “if we don’t have a deal in 50 days.”
“I’m disappointed in President Putin, because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago, but it doesn’t seem to get there. So based on that, we’re going to be doing secondary tariffs. If we don’t have a deal in 50 days, it’s very simple, and they’ll be at 100 percent, and that’s the way it is. That can be more simple. It’s just the way it is. I hope we don’t have to do it,” he said.
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