Donald Trump has some extremely ignorant thoughts about Brexit that he would like to share with you
Americans woke up on Friday to news of the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union—a decision which triggered the pulverization of the British pound on the global market, and which leaves Europe more fractious and uncertain than it’s been in decades.
Brexit, or the “British Exit,” is a political movement based in no small part on resurgent ultra-nationalism, panicked isolationism, and sheer xenophobia. It leaves both the U.K. and the E.U. on unprecedentedly shaky ground, and raises the possibility that British politician Boris Johnson—a man who once claimed President Obama harbored an “ancestral dislike of the British empire” due to his “part-Kenyan” heritage—could someday occupy 10 Downing Street.
Naturally, Donald Trump is delighted.
During a news conference in Scotland at the re-opening of his Trump Turnburry golf course on Friday, Trump described the vote to leave the E.U. as “a great thing that’s happened. It’s an amazing vote, very historic.”
“People are angry all over the world,” Trump told reporters. “They’re angry over borders, they’re angry over people coming into the country and taking over and nobody even knows who they are.”
Opposition to immigration was one of the major engines of the “Leave” campaign, with proponents veering into not-so-subtle racism to stoke the xenophobic fears of the voting public.
“They’re angry about many, many things in the UK, the US and many other places,” Trump added, saying “This will not be the last.”
On Twitter, Trump was equally enthused:
In fact, Scotland voted overwhelmingly against Brexit, and will likely call for an independence referendum in the hopes of rejoining the E.U. But Trump’s ignorance of the situation shouldn’t be surprising. He only recently learned what Brexit even meant.
Here’s The Hollywood Reporter‘s Michael Wolff, speaking with Trump just weeks before this week’s vote:
“And Brexit? Your position?” I ask.
“Huh?”
“Brexit.”
“Hmm.”
“The Brits leaving the EU,” I prompt, realizing that his lack of familiarity with one of the most pressing issues in Europe is for him no concern nor liability at all.
“Oh yeah, I think they should leave.”
In an interview with Fox Business this week, Trump was slightly more specific, citing “the migration” as one reason for his supporting Brexit, but he tempered that with the caveat that “I don’t think anybody should listen to me because I haven’t really focused on it very much.”
Now that Brexit is a done deal, however, Trump appears eager to align himself with what he’s framed as part of the same populist sentiment responsible for his success in the U.S. presidential race.
““I really do see a parallel between what’s happening in the United States and what’s happening here,” he told reporters at Turnberry. “You just have to embrace it, it’s the will of the people.”