Brexit ‘stupidest thing’ though ‘we Trumped it,’ says billionaire media mogul

The UK’s decision to leave the European Union is the “single stupidest thing any country has ever done” apart from electing real estate mogul Donald Trump as the US president, says the former mayor of New York and the CEO of the Bloomberg media company, Michael Bloomberg.

“It is really hard to understand why a country that was doing so well wanted to ruin it,” Bloomberg, who is in London to open a new headquarters for his company, said of Brexit, in an interview with The Guardian on Tuesday.

He made the comments as Britain and the EU were struggling to find the path to Brexit.

“It was not a smart thing to do and getting out of it is going to be very difficult and is going to be very painful. It will hurt industries. People are already taking space in other cities over there [Europe], us included.”

‘People don’t want to go’ to UK, US

Bloomberg further associated Brexit with the election of Trump, also a New York billionaire, in the 2016 election, tacitly suggesting that the two originate from the same mentality in the UK and the US.

“I did say that I thought it was the single stupidest thing any country has ever done but then we Trumped it,” said the former New York mayor.

He also stated that some of his employees are asking him to leave the UK and the US.

“One of the things that is hurting us both in the United States and in the UK is that we have employees, not a lot but some, who are starting to say: ‘I don’t want to work here – can we transfer to someplace else? This country doesn’t like immigrants,’” Bloomberg said. “All this talk in Washington – words have consequences. Whether we change the immigration laws or not, there is general feeling around the world that America is no longer an open, welcoming place and a lot of people don’t want to go there, and the same thing is happening in the UK because of Brexit.”

The media mogul further voiced doubt over his decision to open a new European headquarters if he knew in advance that Britons would opt for quitting the bloc.

“We are opening a brand new European headquarters in London – two big, expensive buildings. Would I have done it if I knew they were going to drop out? I’ve had some thoughts that maybe I wouldn’t have, but we are there, we are going to be very happy,” he said. “My former wife was a Brit, my daughters have British passports, so we love England – it’s the father of our country, I suppose. But what they are doing is not good and there is no easy way to get out of it because if they don’t pay a penalty, everyone else would drop out. So they can’t get as good of a deal as they had before.”

The government of British Prime Minister Theresa May is currently engaged in negotiations with the EU to end their 44-year relationship

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