With Britain’s role as the bridge between Washington and the continent in doubt, the US State Department took the extraordinary step of warning Mr Johnson to be “sensible”.
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The White House says he told May on Thursday that the USA was committed to deepening the US relationship with the U.K. Obama told her he looks forward to working with her during his final six months in office.
After Obama in April said he hoped that Britons would vote to stay in the EU, Johnson described America’s first black president as a “part-Kenyan” with an “ancestral dislike of the British empire”. May appointed him Foreign Secretary and while he will not be leading the Brexit agenda, he will most certainly have to be involved in the process.
“Did you all see what his style was like through the campaign?”
Speaking to reporters outside the Foreign Office, Johnson shrugged off the idea that his appointment was controversial. When President Barack Obama suggested Britain would be at the back of the queue for trade deals with the United States if it left the EU, Johnson replied the president had Kenyan roots and had an “ancestral dislike of the British Empire”.
There is widespread animosity in Europe towards Johnson, who recently compared the EU’s aims to those of Adolf Hitler. Now I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
After the Brexit vote, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker labelled Johnson and other Leave campaigners “sad heroes”.
In a freakish twist, Johnson has also offered unusual praise for Syrian leader Bashar Assad, calling him a vile dictator but hailing the success of his forces in beating back Islamic State extremists.
David Davis has been put in charge of exit negotiations as new Brexit minister, while Liam Fox has responsibility for negotiating new trade agreements outside the bloc. “But now there are completely different political tasks in the foreground”.
The new prime minister picked departing Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond as chancellor of the exchequer, or finance minister, expected to work to calm world markets roiled by the referendum.
Rebecca Harms, leader of the ecologist Greens group in the European Union legislature said: “At first I thought it was a joke”.
Johnson is likely to have a limited role in European Union negotiations, as Prime Minister May has created a new government department tasked with handling Brexit, headed by long-time Eurosceptic lawmaker David Davis.
May won the leadership battle and quickly sacked Gove, who is now seen as treacherous by many Conservatives.
The betrayal by Gove, whose parting shot was to say that “Boris can not provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead”, stopped Johnson’s march on Downing Street before it had even started.
It is somewhat unfortunate as well that Johnson should be appointed as Foreign Secretary soon after Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Reserve Bank Governor John Mangudya were in the United Kingdom on a mission to market Zimbabwe to investors in that part of the world.
“I have to say that the gentleman you mentioned, the French foreign minister, in fact has sent me a charming letter just a couple of hours ago saying how much he looked forward to working together and to deepening Anglo-French cooperation on all sorts of areas”.
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“I need a partner with whom I can negotiate and who is clear, credible and reliable”, he added.
