One of the myths about Donald Trump is that he’s wildly unpredictable. In media terms, he’s an absolute banker: everywhere he goes, every time he opens his mouth or picks up his smartphone, he gives the press what we want.
Take his glorious interview with the Sun this morning. It was timed to perfection. The great news value is not that we are surprised by what Trump thinks — we probably all could have guessed that Trump wouldn’t love a soft Brexit; that he would say you need Brexit to be as hard and sordid as possible — but that Trump just says it. He says what every reporter wants him to say, in a way. And boy did he deliver for the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn. He also said that Britain and Europe were losing their culture because of immigration, he raged against Sadiq Khan, he ranted about NHS hospitals having blood on their walls. The man is a news god.
To top it off, his Chief of Staff John Kelly told Newton Dunn: ‘I read the Sun every day. I love Britain.’
My favourite bit, however, is Trump’s misremembering of his visit to Turnberry in 2016: “I was cutting a ribbon for the opening of Turnberry — you know they totally did a whole renovation, it is beautiful — the day before the Brexit vote. “I said, ‘Brexit will happen’.” It was in fact the day after the Brexit vote. That’s Hillary Clintonesque. Let’s see what more news bombs Trump can drop today with the Prime Minister…
