Analysis: Gossip about Trump is no laughing matter

4 December 2019, 13:17

Donald Trump and Boris Johnson at the Nato summit today
Donald Trump and Boris Johnson at the Nato summit today. Picture: PA
Theo Usherwood

By Theo Usherwood

Boris Johnson needs to keep Donald Trump onside if he wants to get his trade deal.

And so any hint that he may have been sharing a joke with French President Emmanuel Macron at his expense during a reception at Buckingham Palace last night, is likely to have gone down badly.

Until now, Mr Trump has done the Conservative Party a favour: he has stayed out of the election. But that could all change this afternoon with the press conferences.

Jens Stoltenberg - the Secretary General of NATO - will go first. He’ll be followed by Boris Johnson, who will use this appearance as a host on the world stage to try and burnish his credentials as the right choice for the country in next week’s election.

His appearance will of course be within his control. What will be outside of his control is what comes next: Donald Trump’s press conference.

And the question is: will the US President inadvertently throw a spanner into works of Boris Johnson’s election campaign?