The White House declined to get in the middle of a spat between Donald Trump and British Prime Minister David Cameron, other than to say that the U.S.-British relationship is one that President Obama has invested heavily in during his tenure.
Downing Street and the billionaire presumptive GOP presidential nominee traded barbs over the weekend. Cameron called the presidential hopeful “stupid, divisive and wrong” over his call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S. Trump responded by predicting that he may not have a “very good relationship” with Cameron if he wins the White House.
“I’ll let the individual presidential candidates express their own views on what they hope to do to strengthen our alliances around the world,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said when asked about the cross-Atlantic quarreling.
“President Obama over the course of his tenure in office has invested deeply in our alliances around the world because of the important benefits those alliances bring to the American people both in terms of economic security, but also when it comes to our national security,” Earnest said.
Obama, he said, has invested “deeply in the special relationship the United States and the U.K. have enjoyed for centuries, and the president certainly believes that that’s an alliance worthy of an investment,” he concluded.
Trump’s dust-up with Cameron extended to London Mayor Sadiq Khan after the billionaire businessman said he would not forgive Khan for calling him “ignorant” and challenged the mayor to participate in an IQ test. Khan’s team later mocked that offer.
Trump last year called for a temporary halt to all Muslims entering the U.S. in the aftermath of the deadly terror attack by a Muslim married couple in San Bernardino, Calif.
At the time, Trump said Muslims harbor “hatred” toward Americans, and a ban should be imposed until U.S. policymakers “can figure out what is going on.”
At the time, Cameron responded to those remarks by saying: “I think his remarks are divisive, stupid and wrong, and I think if he came to visit our country, I think it’d united us all against him,” according to a report in the BBC.
On ITV’s “Good Morning Britain” earlier Monday, Trump said: “It looks like we’re not going to have a very good relationship, who knows.
“I hope to have a good relationship with him, but it sounds like he’s not willing to address the problem either.”
