Boris Johnson avoids awkward questions on 'secretive' US trip
This trip was all about the mood music - setting the right tone for future negotiations with the Trump administration.
Tuesday 10 January 2017 13:19, UK
After a secretive start to his US visit Boris Johnson has suddenly popped up boasting about Britain's chances of clinching an early trade deal.
It began all rather cloak and dagger. The Foreign Secretary slipped across the Atlantic unannounced.
The British embassy sounded surprised when Sky News asked about rumours Boris was in New York and only then did the Foreign Office in London issue a short statement announcing his visit.
Normally these trips are heralded ahead of time and the press are invited along.
In all the foreign secretary visits I have covered in the States, the broadcast media are invited to ask a few questions too.
Instead, Mr Johnson .
Apparently talking down the barrel of an iPhone, he followed a cheery "hey folks" with some equally
PR people call it going "over the top". Using social media to go over the heads of the media and direct to the voters or people at home.
It means the peAG百家乐在线官网 press cannot ask awkward questions.
"Who exactly is promising Britain preferential status in trade talks?" for instance.
"What kind of sacrifices will a desperate post-Brexit Conservative government be prepared to make with a domineering Trump administration just so it can boast about a free trade deal with America?" might be another relevant question.
"Isn't the first rule of negotiations to play hard to get? Is truckling to Trump up his golden tower at the first opportunity the best way of going about it?" could well be others.
Boris Johnson has not had to answer those questions in this unusually secretive trip.
Instead this was all about mood music. Setting the right tone for relations to come.
And that is familiar territory for the Foreign Secretary.
If you have seen him in a room full of Americans you will understand. His self-deprecating humour and bombastic charm may be wearing a little thin on this side of the pond.
Over there it goes down a storm and in seeking favour in the court of the Donald he will have been in his element.