{"id":10703,"date":"2019-06-20T13:00:15","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T18:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/during-trump-visit-uk-legislators-tweeted-critically-of-potential-trade-deal-with-u-s\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:12:23","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:12:23","slug":"during-trump-visit-uk-legislators-tweeted-critically-of-potential-trade-deal-with-u-s","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2019\/06\/20\/during-trump-visit-uk-legislators-tweeted-critically-of-potential-trade-deal-with-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"During Trump visit, UK legislators tweeted critically of potential trade deal with U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
President Donald Trump and Queen Elizabeth II inspect a Guard of Honour at Windsor Castle during Trump’s previous visit to the UK in July 2018. (Matt Dunham – WPA Pool\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n\n
\"NHS,<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

U.S. President Donald Trump characteristically took to Twitter during his state visit to the United Kingdom earlier this month, tweeting content ranging from calling London Mayor Sadiq Kahn \u201cnasty\u201d<\/a> to praising the royal family\u2019s hospitality<\/a>. At the same time, UK legislators in the House of Lords and House of Commons tweeted more critical content of Trump\u2019s visit, especially as it relates to U.S. influence on the UK, according to a new analysis of 547 tweets collected by Pew Research Center over 10 days immediately before, during and after the trip.<\/p>\n\n

Among the legislators\u2019 original tweets relevant to Trump\u2019s visit, the most mentioned topic was the impact of a potential U.S.-UK trade deal on the National Health Service (NHS), the publicly funded, single-payer national health care system.<\/p>\n\n

Many of the 110 NHS-related tweets expressed concern or disapproval that due to Brexit \u2013 Britain\u2019s impending exit from the European Union \u2013 the UK would entertain a trade deal with the U.S. that could potentially open the NHS to greater involvement<\/a> by U.S. health care companies. And among retweets shared by legislators during the time, the most retweeted sentiment came from the Labour Party\u2019s official account, appealing to Britons to protect the NHS.<\/p>\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/UKLabour\/status\/1135932417053810688<\/p>\n\n

Critiques of a potential post-Brexit trade deal between the U.S. and UK drew the second-most mentions of the topics analyzed. Members of Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party accounted for 89 of the 96 tweets in this category. Many of these tweets lamented that Brexit, especially a \u201cno-deal Brexit<\/a>,\u201d would weaken the UK and give Trump the advantage in trade negotiations. More than half of these trade deal tweets also mentioned the NHS, with 15 specifically asserting that the NHS is not \u201cfor sale.\u201d (Tweets that mentioned more than one topic were counted in multiple categories.)<\/p>\n\n

On the other hand, nine tweets that were categorized separately expressed general pro-trade deal attitudes or asserted that the UK would be better served to strengthen their economic partnership with the U.S. upon leaving the EU.<\/p>\n\n

The economic challenges that our world faces cannot be tackled alone. As part of the #USStateVisit<\/a> @stevenmnuchin1<\/a> & I discussed how we\u2019ll ensure the rules-based international system is fit for the future, and how we'll build on the opportunities of greater US-UK cooperation.<\/p>— Philip Hammond (@PhilipHammondUK) June 4, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote>