Trump at the NATO summit is like Homer Simpson trying not to screw up, according to the UK's most feared journalist

Bill Bostock,Bill BostockDec 4, 2019, 17:27 IST

President Donald Trump is acting like Homer Simpson at the NATO summit, trying not to cause disaster but failing dismally, the UK's most feared journalist has said.
"He's trying desperately hard to be quiet and his head's going: 'Don't mention Boris. Don't mention Brexit. Don't mention Boris ... DOH!'," the BBC's Emily Maitlis told the Electioncast podcast on Tuesday.
"In my head he's morphed slightly into Homer Simpson," she added.
Maitlis' comments come as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson distances himself from Trump for fear of it jeopardizing his chances in the upcoming general election.
Trump was also the apparent butt of a joke between Johnson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, and other leaders on Tuesday night.
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Watching President Donald Trump at the NATO summit in England is like watching Homer Simpson tip-toeing around, trying not to cause carnage, one of the UK's leading broadcasters has said.

"In my head he's morphed slightly into Homer Simpson," Emily Maitlis told the BBC's Electioncast on Tuesday, referring to the bumbling character in "The Simpsons."

"I imagine him sort of tiptoeing around a sitting room in carpet slippers, or maybe those fluffy white ones you get in posh hotels."

"He's trying desperately hard to be quiet and his head's going: 'Don't mention Boris. Don't mention Brexit. Don't mention Boris. Don't mention Brexit. Don't mention Boris ... DOH!'" Maitlis said, referring to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and quoting Simpson's signature phrase.

"Now that it's come out, he's bumped into the standard lamp and you're not quite sure what he's going to do next," she added.

In recent weeks, British journalists have pressed Trump to clarify whether a post-Brexit trade deal between the US and UK will include the National Health Service (NHS).

Trump said in June the NHS - which pollsters at Ipsos Mori say is most critical voter issue in the UK - must be "on the table" in any future trade deal.

However, he told reporters on Tuesday he wouldn't include the NHS in trade talks even if it was "handed on a silver platter."

Prime Minister Johnson has distanced himself from Trump during the president's London trip, fearing it would jeopardize his success in the upcoming general election, due to be held on December 12. Pollsters are predicting Johnson to win.

"It's best when you have close friends and allies like the US and the UK … for neither side to be involved in other's election campaigns," Johnson told LBC radio last week.

According to Politico's London Playbook, Johnson is "so keen not to be photographed with the US president that he did not even greet him at the door when he and wife Melania arrived" at 10 Downing Street on Tuesday night.

Maitlis is considered the UK's most ferocious broadcaster. She conducted the infamous November interview where Prince Andrew was grilled about his friendship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, which resulted in the royal being ditched by multiple businesses and being relieved of all his public duties for the foreseeable future.

On the first day of the NATO summit, Trump was publicly fact-checked by French President Emmanuel Macron, and appeared to be the butt of a joke between Macron, Johnson, and Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau that was caught on camera.

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Trump at the NATO summit is like Homer Simpson trying not to screw up, according to the UK's most feared journalist