MAIDENS, South Ayshire, Scotland — President Donald Trump told Breitbart News that the unconditional ceasefire he negotiated between Thailand and Cambodia while here in Scotland will save millions of lives in the two southeast Asian nations.
That deal, of course, came right on the heels of another major deal the president announced here in Scotland during this short trip to his mother’s homeland: On Sunday evening, after just about an hour of negotiations, Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a massive trade deal between the United States and the European Union, which von der Leyen described as the “biggest trade deal ever.”
Trump sat with Breitbart News for nearly an hour at his majestic seaside golf resort, Turnberry, here on Monday morning just before the arrival of the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer for a bilateral discussion and press availability. Later, Trump departed for Aberdeen on Scotland’s other coast, where the president is opening a new golf course named for his Scottish-born mother, Mary Anne MacLeod.
“It’s a great course,” Trump said of the new one at Aberdeen named for his mother. “We have a big project up there. We have one and we got two—and if I didn’t build it, you lose the zoning. You have to build by a certain date and that date was coming up, so I said we have to start it. My son has done a great job—really a great job—and it’s going to be special. It’s going to be one of the best anywhere in the world. We already have a course that’s rated a top five course and now we have another one that might be better. So, we’re going to have a lot of fun and I’m also meeting with the Prime Minister, and we’ve got some good positive things to discuss.”
Moments before the president sat down with Breitbart News, he was able to unlock an unconditional ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia after previously pressuring both nations using the economic might of the United States and impending trade deals with both nations as leverage. Trump said when he sat down with Breitbart News that he was “very happy” the war stopped between Cambodia and Thailand.
“We were very happy we stopped the Cambodia war with a very nice local rival that frankly they have had wars for many, many years—over 500 years–and we got it stopped as you probably know,” Trump said. “That just came out in the news right now. We worked on it yesterday and we got it stopped today.”
Trump said he actually learned about much of the history of the hostilities between the two nations from Breitbart News, likely referencing a piece published last week from Christian Caruzo detailing how the current conflict dates back more than a century and other similar conflicts between the two date back centuries. Trump told Breitbart News he spoke to the prime ministers of both Thailand and Cambodia, detailing the message he delivered to both leaders to help speed the end of the conflict.
“Thailand is a very big trading partner and Cambodia lesser so, but they do a lot, and I saw and read in a lot of different places including yours—Breitbart—that they were really going at it,” Trump said. “They’ve had many conflicts and wars over the years, I guess it was a 500-year period. When I spoke to them, they said 500 years, and I said that’s a lot. But now it was raging and raging hard. People were being killed at the border—a lot. I said ‘listen, we’re doing a trading deal’—with Thailand I started—‘we’re doing a trading deal and I’m not going to be doing a deal if you’re going to be killing each other.’ Then I spoke to Cambodia and said essentially the same thing. I dealt with the two prime ministers—they were terrific people. They don’t want to see a war. But somebody had to implement what I did. We started a series of discussions back and forth, back and forth. Within less than a day, we have it settled. I guess now, based on what you’re saying, they’ve just said we’re going to have peace. That’s great. Millions of people are going to be saved. Those wars turn out to be a disaster. Millions of people get killed. It’s total disruption—and it takes them 40 years to recover. But we were able to stop it before it really started although a lot of people have already been killed.”
Sure enough, as Trump correctly noted, “less than a day” into the diplomatic and economic negotiations Cambodia and Thailand reached an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire” just as Trump sat down with Breitbart News.
The evening before this latest development, Trump had secured the biggest trade deal in world history according to the European Union leader when the European government agreed to terms with the U.S. president on a monumental pact. Trump told Breitbart News that he has “developed a very good relationship with Ursula” and laid out several of the selling points of this major deal in this interview.
“I dealt with Ursula. We dealt with the countries,” Trump said. “This has been going on for a couple of months. When it started I didn’t think we were going to make a deal. We were way off, which would have been bad. Even in terms of unity for the world, it would have been bad because as you know many countries are in the European Union like Germany, France, Spain, and a lot of very good countries and very powerful, very big countries. So, we were able to do it. We settled and helped—I think we made a great deal with NATO a month ago where NATO is going to pay 5 percent. Nobody saw that coming. Nobody thought that was even possible. We got along great—and I think that helped this. I’ve developed a very good relationship with Ursula and we made a deal where they’re going to buy billions and billions of dollars’ worth of our products and energy. They’ve opened up the entire European Union for free trade, which is something that nobody thought could happen so that our country can now go in there and compete in some of the biggest markets. It might be the biggest market, somebody said, but it’s right up there when you add all of those countries together. We have the right to work there and we don’t pay any tariffs and they will be—we’re bringing the tariffs for them to 15 percent. They’re going to buy $600 billion worth of our military equipment, they’re going to buy hundreds of billions of dollars of other equipment, and they’re going to buy $750 billion worth of energy. It’s a great deal for both. I think Europe is going to be very happy with it. They seem to be very happy and their markets are doing good. It’s a deal like a deal good for peace. We had all these countries and if we didn’t make the deal there would be like a hangover—it would be not good. But it’s a great deal for the United States and I hope it’s a great deal for them too.”
Much more from President Trump’s latest exclusive interview with Breitbart News is forthcoming.
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