Trump celebrates UK's Johnson, eyes major trade deal

By Vakkas Dogantekin

ANKARA (AA) - U.S. President Donald Trump sent his last tweet of his long day early on Friday to celebrate the victory of Boris Johnson, the like-minded leader of the Conservative Party, who won Thursday's general elections in the U.K.

In what analysts dubbed as the "BREXIT election", Britain’s leading Conservative Party led by Johnson has triumphed in the early election after securing outright legislative majority with more than 326 seats in the House of Commons, according to results declared in 644 of 650 constituencies.

The Tories have won 360 seats in the House of Commons.

"Congratulations to Boris Johnson on his great WIN!" tweeted Trump and added that "Britain and the United States will now be free to strike a massive new Trade Deal after BREXIT."

"This deal has the potential to be far bigger and more lucrative than any deal that could be made with the E.U. Celebrate Boris!" Trump said once the official confirmation was received that Johnson was the new prime minister.

In recent weeks, during the heat of election campaigns, Trump and Johnson, despite being very fond of each other, pretended like they are two strangers thinking that a public support by Trump could hurt the prospects for Johnson in Britain, where Trump is very unpopular.

Johnson's victory is expected to fast-forward U.K.'s exit from Europe, a thorny issue that has turned into a constitutional crisis in the country.

The former London mayor ran on an agenda of "get BREXIT done".

Under less pressure from the EU following yesterday's results, the new government of Johnson is expected to facilitate talks with the Trump administration for a major trade deal the two countries have been eyeing for long.

Trump administration demands full access for American pharmaceutical companies to the National Health Service (NHS), a revered and cherished British institution founded after World War II to provide free health care to Britons.

Full access will allow U.S. pharma companies to have a say in drug prices at a time when they believe drug prices in the U.K. are too low and, which they claim, constitutes theft of American intellectual property.

Although both Trump and Johnson said NHS is not part of the deal before the elections to counter arguments of Jeremy Corbyn -- the leader of the opposition Labor Party -- post-election scenarios are likely to change under pressure from the U.S. administration.

It goes without saying that Johnson and Trump have major policy differences. While Johnson backs the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement in solidarity with its allies in the continental Europe, Trump withdrew from the former and ignores the latter.

Johnson said "no" when asked whether he would support U.S. military operation on Iran earlier this year.