Donald Trump says he'll prioritize the negotiation of a trade deal with Britain once he becomes President at the end of this week.
But he's lashed out at German Chancellor Angela Merkel, calling her open-door policy on immigration "catastrophic".
Mr. Trump was speaking during interview for two European publications: The Times of London and the German tabloid Bild.
Our Washington Correspondent Simon Marks reports.
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This is the week everything in the United States changes, with Donald Trump's inauguration as President taking place at high noon on Friday.
And in the first interview that he's given to European news outlets since the election,
the President-elect has telegraphed yet again just how much is going to change here.
It is a sign of The Times that his interview in The Times was granted not to a prominent member of the Washington press corps…but to a prominent Brexit campaigner, the MP Michael Gove.
Mr. Trump told Mr. Gove that unlike Barack Obama….who said Britain would find itself at the back of the queue for any kind of trade deal with the US if it left the European Union….a Trump administration will prioritize negotiations with Teresa May's government.
People like Mike Pence…who on Friday becomes America's Vice President…say that's all part and parcel of a US government determined to make friends on the world stage.
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But perhaps not more respected in the German Chancellor's office.
In his interview, Donald Trump launches a broadside against Angela Merkel…accusing her of what he calls a "very catastrophic mistake" by opening the country's doors to migrants….or as he calls them, "all of these illegals".
He said he has great "respect" for Mrs. Merkel, and would start his Presidency by trusting her….but he expressed doubts about just how long that trust might last.
Of Vladimir Putin, he did not express similar skepticism.
He says he hopes to negotiate "good deals" with the Russian leader…and, in contrast to comments last year about fueling an arms race, Mr. Trump says he now favors negotiating further reductions in nuclear weapons.
Again channeling his boss, Vice President-elect Mike Pence.
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For America's intelligence agencies, Donald Trump expressed continuing contempt over the weekend.
In angry postings on Twitter he demanded an apology, accusing them of leaking the 35 page dossier last week that claimed, without substantiation, that the Russians have compromising materials about him.
And if he's contemptuous of US intelligence…well, they seem pretty contemptuous of him.
CIA Director John Brennan spoke on Fox News.
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Another battle the President-elect is waging: with a lion of the civil rights struggle here, Congressman John Lewis.
The Democrat told NBC he doesn't view Donald Trump to be a legitimate President and will boycott Friday's inauguration.
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Mr. Trump accused Congressman Lewis of being "all talk and no action"….a description that stuck in the craw of many Democrats on Capitol Hill who are mindful of the fact that the Congressman nearly died at the hands of police battling for civil rights alongside Martin Luther King.
At least two dozen say they will now stay away from the Inauguration…raining on Donald Trump's parade just as much as the showers forecast for Friday.
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