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CNN  — 

Christopher Ruddy, a confidant of President Donald Trump’s who’s the CEO of the news organization Newsmax, described Trump’s dinner Thursday with British Prime Minister Theresa May as a “love fest,” despite the publication of a controversial interview with a major British tabloid in which Trump criticized May’s approach to Brexit and endorsed one of her political critics.

“It was a great night. I would describe it as a love fest between the President of the United States and the British Prime Minister, in terms of their two countries,” Ruddy said in an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “Cuomo Prime Time.” “It was, I think, a celebration of the very special relationship the United States had.”

Ruddy further described the dinner – which he attended – and the relationship between Trump and May more broadly, in positive terms.

“This President likes the interpersonal connection with people. He’s a very people person. And he seems to do very well – I was just with him tonight, and I saw him with the Prime Minister sitting there. And I said to him, ‘This special relationship is better than ever,’ and he said, ‘It is.’ I could see the chemistry between them was very good,” Ruddy said.

Ruddy’s glowing descriptions of the dinner and the relationship between Trump and May contrasted sharply with an interview Thursday in the British tabloid The Sun in which Trump criticized May and complimented her opponents. The interview was published near the end of the dinner, and Ruddy was not specifically asked about it by CNN.

In the interview, Trump was especially critical of May’s handing of the UK’s upcoming exit from the European Union.

“I told her how to do it. That will be up to her to say. But I told her how to do it. She wanted to go a different route,” Trump said, according to audio of the interview posted by The Sun.

Trump said May “didn’t listen” to his views on how she should negotiate Brexit, but that was “fine.”

Trump also said that Boris Johnson, who had resigned as foreign secretary on Monday in protest of May’s recent announcement of a plan for Brexit, was “a very talented guy” who “would be a great prime minister.”