DAYS AFTER TRUMP VISIT BRIT GOV GROWS A PAIR AND STARTS NEGOTIATING LIKE A BOSS

"Listen, this may be hard for you, but give it a try..."

Up until now the government of UK Prime Minister Theresa May has been cucking hard on Europe. Essentially it has been bending over backwards and trying to give the EU everything it demands in the ongoing Brexit negotiations.

But just days after the visit of President Trump to the UK, a new tone has started to emerge, with Britain's new Brexit Minister, Dominic Raab, threatening to rip up the £39 billion divorce bill, which the UK has already agreed to pay the EU, if the EU fails to come to an agreement on the terms laid down by Theresa May in her Chequers plan. 

This plan was recently amended by the "Hard Brexit" European Research Group of Jacob Rees-Mogg to make it even less palatable to the EU. But now the British government is pushing it hard by essentially threatening the EU in classic Trump style.

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Brexit Minister Raab said the payment and a trade deal had to be linked:

"The two are linked. You can't have one side fulfilling its side of the bargain and the other side not, or going slow, or failing to commit on its side. So, I think we do need to make sure that there's some conditionality between the two."

He also accused the EU of "irresponsibly" ramping-up pressure in withdrawal negotiations.

The tougher tone may simply be because the British government has its back against the wall, but the new style of negotiation also has all the hallmarks of Donald Trump's style.

As reported in the Daily Express, Steve Bannon, a close friend of the President, said Trump gave the Prime Minister advice on how to get the best Brexit deal when she visited the White House in January last year. This was the meeting where there was a lot of hand-holding. He also gave her a copy of his book "The Art of the Deal."

“Trump gave her some pointers and pulled her off to the side and said, 'Hey if I was doing this here is how tough you have got to be because these guys are not going to let you go'. He gave her the précis of his book 'The Art of the Deal' which is 'overshoot your target, be tough and get on with it - because if this drags on it is going to be bad'."

In an interview on the eve of his recent visit, Trump said he had told May how to deal with Brussels last year, but she “didn’t listen.” 

Now it looks like she is listening, and, because she is, Europe is much more likely to listen to her.