Jeremy Hunt last night admitted buttering Donald Trump up with an interview on Fox News ahead of the US President’s visit to the UK.

But the President still had no idea who he was.

The Foreign Secretary told the story during his speech at the Foreign Office’s Christmas Reception, held last night at Lancaster House.

Dozens of ambassadors and diplomats from across the world gathered in the gilded halls to enjoy fine wine and canapes and listen to the Foreign Office choir sing Christmas Carols.

In his speech, Mr Hunt joked that Trump’s visit to the UK, which took place in his first week in the job, had been "quite an eventful visit."

He said: "The day before I met him I was asked to do some media interviews with the American media. So I did an interview with Fox media in which I thought about things that I agreed with the President on and I trotted them out.

"And afterwards my Foreign Office media minder said to me “Foreign Secretary, you might just want to be a bit careful, because a lot of British people look at Fox, and they don’t always agree with the President.”

"Anyway, the next morning at Chequers, I met the President, and he bounded in and said: “Great interview!”

"And then he said “I said to the person next to me, I don’t know who this guy is…”

"And I learned that if you want to get a message to the President of the United States, Fox is the way."

Donald Trump has grown infamous for spending long periods of time alone in the White House residence, watching cable news and tweeting angrily in response to what he sees.

During the interview with Fox News, broadcast as part of host Martha Maccallum’s programme ‘The Story’, Mr Hunt lavished praise on Trump, saying he was "a strong President" and a "dealmaker."

He said: "Well, I think President Trump has a certain style. I mean, this is someone who likes doing deals and part of doing a deal is to show people that if you do the deal that he wants, that’s very attractive.

"He’ll be your friend, if you don’t do the deal, that’s a very unattractive, life’s going to get tough."

Mr Hunt also shared an optimistic view of Britain’s future outside the EU in his speech last night, saying: "Whatever shade of Brexit we end up with, this country is always going to be the closest of friends with our European neighbours."

Read More

Top Donald Trump stories

Source: Read Full Article