Hours before Speaker Mike Johnson became the first speaker in U.S. history to address the British Parliament, President Donald Trump was criticizing the United Kingdom’s planned ceding of overseas territory in the Indian Ocean, including the island of Diego Garcia.
“We’ve always been able to work through our differences calmly as friends. We will continue to do that. I want to assure you this morning that that is still the case,” Johnson, R-La., said in his address to Parliament on Tuesday. “I told the president that I felt that my mission here today was to encourage our friends and help to calm the waters, so to speak, and I hope to do so.”
Johnson cited Prime Minister Keir Starmer and said he believed the United States and the United Kingdom can work through differences of opinion over Trump’s foreign policy.
