President Donald Trump criticized Europe’s open border policy, saying that mass immigration was permanently changing the continent for the worse. The UK is “losing” its culture as a result, he added.
“I think it changed the fabric of Europe and, unless you act very quickly, it’s never going to be what it was and I don’t mean that in a positive way.” Trump said in an interview with the British newspaper The Sun. The comments came on the first day of his visit to the UK.
President Trump repeated those remarks at the joint news conference with British Prime Minister Teresa May Friday, reiterating that migrant influx was “very bad for Europe.”
“I think that has very much hurt Germany, and I think its very much hurt other parts of Europe. And I know its politically not necessarily correct to say that, but I’ll say it — and Ill say it loud,” Trump told reporters.
Britain suffered a series of Islamist terror attacks since the migrant crisis began two years ago, including last year’s Manchester Arena bombing that killed 22 people and wounded 139, most of them children. Going by the official UK crime statistics of 2016, estimated “half of all rape and murder suspects in some parts of Britain [were] foreigners.” The country has also been hit by a ‘knife crime epidemic’—a term used by the UK newspaper Independent.
British newspaper The Sun reported President Trump’s remarks:
Mr Trump told The Sun: “I have great love for countries in Europe.But he added: “I think what has happened to Europe is a shame. Allowing the immigration to take place in Europe is a shame.“I think it changed the fabric of Europe and, unless you act very quickly, it’s never going to be what it was and I don’t mean that in a positive way.“So I think allowing millions and millions of people to come into Europe is very, very sad.”I think you are losing your culture. Look around. You go through certain areas that didn’t exist ten or 15 years ago.”
According to the account published in The Sun, President Trump also slammed Prime Minister Theresa May’s proposed Brexit plan, or the “Chequers Brexit deal,” that seeks to keep Britain under the jurisdiction of the top EU court, the European Court of Justice.
May’s plan meant to appease the EU could “kill” chances of a possible US Trade deal, The Sun reported quoting Trump. “If they do a deal like that, we would be dealing with the European Union instead of dealing with the UK, so it will probably kill the deal,” he added.
Trump later distanced himself from the criticism of May’s handling of the Brexit as portrayed in The Sun. “I didn’t criticize the Prime Minister, I have a lot of respect the Prime Minister,” he said.
Earlier this week, the UK magazine The Spectator disclosed that May cleared the Brexit deal with German Chancellor Angela Merkel before consulting her cabinet.
The Sun revealed that May “told Ministers she couldn’t alter her Brexit plan–as she’d ‘cleared it’ with Angela Merkel.”
German Chancellor Merkel’s involvement in the shaping of Britain’s pro-Brexit policy is troubling for more than one reason. It not only undermines British sovereignty, but also brings into question the nature of the pro-Brexit arrangement.
Merkel, an open-border fanatic, has repeatedly warned of “consequences in case Britain restricted EU immigration.” If the EU courts continue to hold jurisdiction in a post-Brexit scenario, this and other legal leverages could be used to arm-twist Britain into accepting EU norms on immigration.
When May took office two years ago, she assured the British voters that “Brexit meant Brexit” and her government was there to act on the wishes of the people expressed in the July 2016 referendum. A large section of British electorates voted for a Brexit to take back control of their immigration policy from unelected EU commissars.
May’s soft-Brexit deal does not release the UK from the clutches of the EU. The outgoing British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has rightly accused her of “suffocating” the democratic aspirations of the people. By making closed-door deals with Berlin and Brussels, May does not only hurt the electoral prospects of her Conservative Party, but undermines peoples faith in British democracy.
[Cover image via YouTube]
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