Trump couldn't score a meeting with Boris Johnson


Nobody could get the meeting they wanted.
President Trump on Tuesday spoke with British MP Boris Johnson on the phone, but the latter declined Trump's invitation to meet in person while Trump was visiting the U.K. The conversation was reportedly friendly, but Johnson told the president he could not meet because he had to prepare for a campaign event — Johnson, who is pro-Brexit, is one of the frontrunners in the Tory party to replace outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May when she steps down from the post in June.
Trump praised Johnson over the weekend before he arrived in London, saying he'd make an "excellent" prime minister. Johnson, on the other hand, has not shied away from criticizing the president in the past, calling him "unfit" for office after Trump made false claims about there being "no-go" areas in London because of threats posed by Muslims.
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Trump was not the only major politician to face rejection during his stop in London, however. British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn tried to set up a meeting with the president, a Labour spokesperson confirmed, but Trump shot him down.
Unlike Johnson, Trump did not have a prior commitment or even an excuse; he simply said Corbyn, whom he has never met, is a "negative force."
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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
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