Theresa May corrected Trump after rant on 'no-go areas' in London

Theresa May corrected Trump after rant 

British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks as President Trump looks on during their joint news conference at the White House last January. (CARLOS BARRIA/REUTERS)

While dining on beef ribs at the White House last year, President Trump told British Prime Minister Theresa May that he believes there are "no-go areas" in London due to mass contingents of Islamic extremists, according to a report.

Trump's comments, apparently made during May's Washington visit last January, echoes a widely debunked right-wing conspiracy theory about "no-go zones" in European cities.

The prime minister, unnerved by Trump's claim, chose to speak up and "correct him," Chris Wilkins, a former strategy director for the May administration, told Bloomberg News.

Trump apparently bulldozed forward, Wilkins said, telling May that Brexit — Britain's controversial withdrawal from the European Union — would be the "making of us."

"It's going to be a brilliant thing," Trump apparently said of the E.U. referendum, which critics say will harm the British economy and isolate it from the rest of the world.

The White House did not immediately return a request for comment from the Daily News about Trump's "no-go" remarks.

Trump's relationship with May has soured since he retweeted a string of Islamophobic and ostensibly fabricated videos from Britain First last year. May rebuked Trump's retweets, informing him that the far-right group "seeks to divide communities by their use of hateful narratives that peddle lies and stoke tensions."

Phone calls between the Trump and May are usually tense, a source said. (ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES)

The subsequent backlash that Trump faced in the British press apparently upset him and he complained to May about it.

Amid warnings of mass protests, Trump told the prime minister in a phone call last fall that he would not make a state visit to the U.K. unless she could ensure him a warm welcome, sources told Bloomberg News.

Befuddled by the demand, May reportedly told Trump that's not the way things work in Britain and that there wasn't much she could do.

Phone calls between the two leaders are usually tense, with Trump dominating the discussions and May struggling to get an occasional point across, a source said.

Trump and May's relationship degraded further after he recently canceled a planned February trip to London for the official opening of a new U.S. embassy. His decision to can the trip came amid renewed warnings of mass protests, but Trump maintained that he's not going to London because he's not a "big fan" of the new embassy building, which he incorrectly claimed was acquired by the Obama administration. The new building, which Trump called a "bad deal," was actually brokered under President George W. Bush.

- ny news