Trump thanks Boris Johnson after leaked memos said he praised US president for 'making America great again'

President tweeted his thanks after leaked files show then foreign secretary complimenting Mr Trump

Boris Johnson made the comments praising Donald Trump when he was foreign secretary (PA)

Donald Trump has thanked Boris Johnson after leaked meeting notes show the prime minister told US diplomats the president was "making America great again".

The summaries of meetings between American and British politicians were first published in The Daily Telegraph and date back to when Mr Johnson was foreign secretary under Theresa May in 2017.

Written by US officials, the meeting notes claim Mr Johnson praised Mr Trump to the US Ambassador to the UK, saying he was doing "fantastic" work on foreign policy.

In a tweet quoting a news article about the revelations, Mr Trump said: “Thank you Boris, working great together!”

According to the leaked documents, Mr Johnson specifically praised the president’s interventions around North Korea, Syria and China.

He also told the ambassador Woody Johnson, a billionaire businessman and Republican donor who was appointed to the prestigious post by Mr Trump, his boss was increasingly popular in the UK.

However, polling has fairly consistently shown the British public do not approve of Mr Trump. After eight years of strong 60 per cent or higher approval ratings for his predecessor Barack Obama, surveys show barely 16 per cent of Britons approve of the job his Republican successor is doing. 

Mr Trump’s tweeted thanks came amidst a string of tweets and retweets from the president on Tuesday morning, Washington DC time, mostly attacks on the Democrats and officials the president is feuding with, such as former FBI director James Comey and his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen. 

The leaked notes also show how Mr Johnson worked hard to build relationships with key figures in Mr Trump’s inner circle, such as his influential son-in-law Jared Kushner and hardline anti-immigration advisor Stephen Miller. 

“We were initially anxious about the US foreign policy but Trump has been doing fantastic stuff on Syria, North Korea, China, Afghanistan”, Mr Johnson said.

He also is quoted telling Mr Johnson “America is back under Trump” and “The president is making America great again”.

By contrast, the documents reveal how Theresa May struggled with Mr Trump, who was lukewarm in confronting Russia over the Salisbury poisonings, “hectored” her over the phone, and at one point even asked her during a lunch why Mr Johnson was not prime minister. 

Last week, the former UK ambassador to the United States, Lord Darroch, revealed in a book Mr Johnson was “fascinated” by the erratic and irascible businessman in the White House. 

According to the former diplomat, who was removed from post after his own memos critiquing Mr Trump were leaked to the media, the prime minister is particularly taken by his American counterpart’s patchy relationship "with the facts and the truth”

This includes "the limited vocabulary, the simplicity of the messaging, the disdain for political correctness, the sometimes incendiary imagery, and the at best intermittent relationship with facts and the truth", Lord Darroch writes.

Before sending the tweet, Mr Trump and the White House had declined to comment on the leaked diplomatic notes.