Mr. Trump also used his appearance to do some damage control concerning an interview he had given to The Sun, the London tabloid. Speaking with the paper’s political editor, Mr. Trump had robustly criticized Ms. May and her plans to withdraw Britain from the European Union, threatening to undermine Mr. Trump’s meeting with his British counterpart.
The Sun is considered friendly ground for Mr. Trump because of its owner, Rupert Murdoch, the magnate who also oversees Fox News. But the president called the paper’s front-page story — based on an interview that had been recorded — “fake news,” apparently because he thought it left out his complimentary remarks about Ms. May.
In fact, those remarks did appear, and The Sun issued a cheeky, damage-control statement of its own, saying it stood by its reporting. Oddly, though, the tabloid’s statement seemed to let Mr. Trump off the hook: “To say the president used ‘fake news’ with any serious intent is, well … ‘fake news.’”
No matter. Mr. Trump went about the rest of his itinerary, greeting Queen Elizabeth II before leaving for Scotland, where he planned to visit the Trump Turnberry golf resort.
Before takeoff, Mr. Trump spared some time for a journalist whose work he has said he admires: Piers Morgan, the British television presenter and the president’s former co-star from “The Celebrity Apprentice.”
Mr. Morgan, who once hosted a prime-time show on CNN, was granted a 30-minute interview with the president on Air Force One, to be broadcast on the British network ITV. Later, Mr. Morgan posted a photograph on his Twitter account of himself inside the presidential plane’s cabin, beside a seated and grinning Mr. Trump.
“I’ve been on a few fancy planes in my time,” Mr. Morgan wrote, “but nothing quite like this one.”
