President Trump, Ivanka Trump Congratulate Boris Johnson on Becoming Prime Minister

President Trump, Ivanka Trump Congratulate Boris Johnson on Becoming Prime Minister
Boris Johnson leaves his campaign headquarters after he was announced as the new Conservative leader and prime minister, in London, on July 23, 2019. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Zachary Stieber
7/23/2019
Updated:
7/23/2019

President Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka Trump were among those to congratulate Boris Johnson on becoming prime minister of the United Kingdom on July 23.

“Congratulations to Boris Johnson on becoming the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He will be great!” Trump wrote on Twitter shortly after Johnson’s new role was announced.

Ivanka Trump, one of the president’s advisers, also took to Twitter to congratulate Johnson.

“Congratulations @BorisJohnson on becoming the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom,” she wrote.

U.S. Ambassador to the UK Woody Johnson also offered his congratulations.

Speaking to reporters on July 19, Trump predicted he and Johnson would get along well.

“I like him. I think he’s going to do a great job. I think we’re going to have a great relationship,” Trump said about the former mayor of London.

The president then criticized outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May, who he said had “done a very bad job with Brexit.”

“It’s a disaster and it shouldn’t be that way. I think Boris will straighten it out,” Trump added.

Johnson was voted in by his party late July 22 and the result was announced publicly July 23.

“Thank you all for the incredible honour you have done me. The time for campaigning is over and the time for work begins to unite our country and party, deliver Brexit and defeat Corbyn. I will work flat out to repay your confidence,” Johnson wrote on Twitter on July 23.

Johnson has spoken of Trump favorably. In a speech in late June, he said Trump “has many, many good qualities.”

Newly elected British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during the Conservative Leadership announcement at the QEII Centre in London on July 23, 2019. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
Newly elected British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during the Conservative Leadership announcement at the QEII Centre in London on July 23, 2019. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
“This is a guy who, when all is said and done, has got the US economy motoring along at about 3.6 percent growth,” he said, The Sun reported.

“He’s put in capital allowances for business in a way that I think we should be looking at here, he’s cut regulations and he’s cut taxes in a way that has driven growth in the U.S. ... I know that not everybody agrees with everything Donald Trump says or does but on that he is having results, and we should pay tribute to that.”

Ahead of a trip to the UK earlier this year, Trump told The Sun that Johnson “would do a very good job.”

“I like him. I have always liked him. I don’t know that he is going to be chosen, but I think he is a very good guy, a very talented person. He has been very positive about me and our country,” Trump added.