In case you missed it, Brits voted to leave the European Union, what was called BrExit, by a margin of 51.9% to 48.1%. The UK Telegraph has an interesting breakdown of the vote by UK nation and area.
Now, many wondered why Donald Trump would take a few days in the middle of a campaign to head over to Scotland to re-open his golf course. Perhaps he was counting on using the vote, especially if Leave won, as a means to push his campaign
(Reuters) U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump thrust himself into the heart of Britain’s internal struggle on Friday, saying Britons had retaken control of their country by voting to leave the European Union.
In Scotland to reopen a golf resort, the wealthy New York businessman stopped to take questions from reporters after arriving in his signature helicopter at Turnberry near his clubhouse resort, a Scottish flag blowing in the wind.
Asked about Thursday’s down-to-the-wire British vote, Trump said: “They took back control of their country. It’s a great thing.” He said people all over the world were angry, adding: “They’re angry over borders, they’re angry over people coming into the country and taking over.”
In a written statement Trump, 70, said Americans would have a chance “to re-declare their independence” and “reject today’s rule by the global elite” when they vote on Nov. 8 for a U.S. president to succeed President Barack Obama, a Democrat who had urged Britons to stay in the EU.
Right now, Trump is also taking more questions, which I’m watching live. He’s actually doing a good job, giving clear, concise answers before moving on to other questions, and he’s taking quite a few. He even managed, thanks to a question, to take a jab at Obama over Obama stating that BrExit could move the U.K. to the back of the queue on US trade deals. Trump made sure to say this would not happen with his administration.
He’s making some great points on the unfettered and barely controlled immigration from other countries, especially those with Islamist background, causing major issues within the host countries.
Many in the media are rather shocked that Trump would use the occasion to pimp his golf course and hotel interests. He was just asked if it was appropriate for him to be in Scotland. He said “yeah, because I support my children” and moved on.
Meanwhile, The NY Times’ Jim Yardley makes a good point
From Brussels to Berlin to Washington, leaders of the Western democratic world awoke Friday morning to a blunt, once-unthinkable rebuke delivered by the flinty citizens of a small island nation in the North Atlantic. Populist anger against the established political order had finally boiled over. (snip)
Even as the European Union began to grapple with a new and potentially destabilizing period of political uncertainty, the British vote also will inevitably be seized upon as further evidence of deepening public unease with the global economic order. Globalization and economic liberalization have produced winners and losers — and the big “Leave†vote in economically stagnant regions of Britain suggests that many of those who have lost out are fed up.
Time and again, the European Union has navigated political crises during the past decade with a whack-a-mole response that has maintained the status quo and the bloc’s lumbering forward momentum toward greater integration — without directly confronting the roiling public discontent beneath the surface.
There are now moves in France and Holland to hold referendum’s like Britain’s. Perhaps people are tired of having everything dictated to them by elected and un-elected elites.
Read: In Scotland, Trump Hails Britain Leaving The EU »
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