7 times Tories cosied up to Donald Trump despite the warning signs – Mirror Online

Donald Trump has fallen far from the President who enjoyed a lavish State Visit to the UK last year.

Fourteen days before he is booted from office, he reached a new low by telling Capitol rioters we love you.

The Presidents baseless claims the election was stolen from him earned a rebuke from the UK.

Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, said Trumps comments directly led to the violence by his supporters in Washington.

She told the BBC: So far hes failed to condemn that violence, and that is completely wrong.

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Ms Patels condemnation was notable partly because it is so rare.

In the past her fellow Tory ministers and backbenchers have cosied up to the President to win his favour - despite warnings at the time about his character.

Even on Wednesday night, when he condemned the violence via Twitter, Boris Johnson made no mention of Donald Trump.

Ms Patel insisted Britain should look forward, not backwards, as Joe Biden enters the White House.

The fact of the matter is they are now transitioning to a new President, she said.

This isnt about going back and reflecting on personal relationships.

But for the sake of argument, what would we find if we did? Here are seven times Tory MPs were more friendly than they needed to be to the US President.

The Prime Minister used to be blunt about Donald Trump.

In 2015 he accused him of stupefying ignorance for saying parts of London are so radicalised that the police are afraid for their own lives.

Perhaps for diplomatic reasons, Mr Johnson cooled off on the criticism when both men were in government. But critics say he went too far in trying to appease the President - who lavished praised on him and called him 'Britain Trump'.

As Foreign Secretary 2018 he even suggested Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize.

He said: If he can fix North Korea and the Iran nuclear deal then I dont see why hes any less of a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize than Barack Obama, who got it before he even did anything.

The PM of course had history with Barack Obama - who he branded part-Kenyan and accused of an ancestral dislike of the British empire in 2016.

As he hoped for a post-Brexit trade deal with the EU, the PM repeatedly stopped short of criticising Trump directly, even in his worst controversies - and even when it was clear he had lost the 2020 election.

Needless to say, the much-hoped-for Brexit trade deal with the US hasnt materialised yet.

Michael Gove, rather than a full-time journalist, won the first UK interview with Trump after his election.

It later emerged Rupert Murdoch had sat in the room, amid claims the newspaper mogul had a hand in setting up the meeting.

The write-up in The Times praised the incoming Presidents intelligence, saying: Mr Trumps number-rich analysis of defence spending reflects a businessmans ability to cut through jargon to get to the essentials of a case.

Mr Gove also called Trump the master of the profit and loss accounts and a determined negotiator, and they talked about their shared Scottish heritage.

The interview asked Trump about his Muslim ban, which hed stood by weeks earlier, but the answer didnt make it into the final edit of Mr Goves write-up.

To cap it all, the Tory MP then posed with the President-elect with his thumbs up.

Unfortunately for him the friendly tactics didnt work - as when he ran for Tory leader two and half years later, Trump said: I dont know him.

Now Commons Leader, Jacob Rees-Mogg repeatedly sprang to Trumps defence as a backbencher.

Asked in 2016 if he would vote for Trump, he replied: I would almost certainly vote Republican if I were in America. That was nine months after the President demanded a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.

Two years later Mr Rees-Mogg urged MPs to lay out the reddest of red carpets for the President and treat him with the greatest respect and courtesy.

He also took up Trumps claim that he was Americas Mr Brexit.

In a 2018 article headlined President Trump will be our greatest ally after Brexit, Mr Rees-Mogg wrote: His election depended upon similar factors to those that led to Brexit.

He appealed to voters left behind by the metropolitan elite and he exudes confidence about his own nation and a determination not to be a manager of decline, which also inspires the Brexiteers.

The Tory MP for Romford gave fuel to Trumps baseless voter fraud claims with an image he tweeted the day after the US election.

The MPs account shared a crude meme showing Trump as the American Eagle, wrestling back the flag from Biden who was depicted in the form of communism rising from the dead.

It happened after Trump went on TV to demand legal votes stop being counted.

The Tory MP for Morley and Outwood didnt hold back in her enthusiasm for the US President.

When he was mooted for the Nobel Peace Prize she tweeted: "Surely even critics of @realDonaldTrump can recognise his good work in this area.

She shouted "you're welcome Mr President!" down from her office window at anti-Trump protesters while playing with a nodding-head toy of the President during his June 2019 visit to the UK.

"We should roll out the red carpet and welcome President Trump," she said at the time.

And she urged him to "win the election" after he was struck down with coronavirus.

Of course wishing his good health is what any sensible person would do. But urging him to win the election, two days after he refused to condemn white supremacists in a TV debate, is a little different.

Shipley MP Philip Davies is another backbencher who was enthusiastic about the US President in the past.

In 2016, after the President called for a ban on Muslims entering the US, MPs debated banning Trump from entering the UK in retaliation.

But Mr Davies insisted: "He is not a serious threat of harm to our society in any way. The uproar is largely because he is rich, white and politically incorrect, and that, to me, is really the crux of the issue."

He added: Lots of my constituents agree with what Donald Trump said, whether I like it or not. [Should they] be expelled from the country as a result of their views?

In the same year he added: I think that we should celebrate politicians who stand up and say things that are unpopular and controversial.

Theresa May was partly a prisoner of her office - she had to cosy up to Trump for the sake of diplomacy.

But no-one forced her to invite him for a State Visit just a week after his 2017 inauguration - a move that prompted furious protests and a petition that hit a million supporters within days.

World leaders are not automatically offered state visits. Barack Obama was afforded one in 2011 and George Bush had one in 2003, but no other US Presidents had one during the Queens reign.

Mrs May stood by her decision in the face of angry protests and the full State Visit eventually happened in 2019. But she may well have regretted it.

Donald Trump used another visit in 2018 to put a wrecking ball to her Brexit deal, calling her foolish and saying: I actually told Theresa May how to do it but she didnt agree, she didnt listen to me.

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7 times Tories cosied up to Donald Trump despite the warning signs - Mirror Online