{"id":134837,"date":"2025-04-23T23:08:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T23:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/richard-branson-accuses-trump-of-doing-so-much-damage-to-the-world-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-04-23T23:08:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T23:08:00","slug":"richard-branson-accuses-trump-of-doing-so-much-damage-to-the-world-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/richard-branson-accuses-trump-of-doing-so-much-damage-to-the-world-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Branson accuses Trump of \u2018doing so much damage\u2019 to the world – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virgin Atlantic founder says \u2018erratic\u2019 decisions from US president have been \u2018awful for everyone\u2019
Sir Richard Branson<\/a> has attacked Donald Trump\u2019s policies as \u201cdoing so much damage\u201d to the world, adding that he did not believe the US president\u2019s actions were backed by most Americans.
The Virgin Atlantic<\/a> founder warned that the \u201cerratic and unpredictable\u201d actions of the White House were undermining business, although he singled out Trump\u2019s policy on Ukraine as the one that \u201cshould worry the world the most\u201d.
The British billionaire said that he had spoken to Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive, who has become a prominent Trump adviser<\/a>, about Ukraine, but did not divulge further details.
In comments made to reporters before Virgin Atlantic\u2019s inaugural flight to mark the start of services from London to the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, Branson said that Trump\u2019s policies, from imposing tariffs<\/a> to \u201cjumping side\u201d in the war, were \u201cawful for everyone\u201d.
He said: \u201cI honestly think this is a fairly small elite of people around Trump. I don\u2019t think he is carrying the vast majority of Americans in what he is doing.\u201d
Among comments reported variously by the Telegraph, Times and Bloomberg, Branson added: \u201cI\u2019m just sad, incredibly sad. And many, many Americans I know are just very sad.\u201d
He said Trump\u2019s policies were \u201cvery difficult for business to deal with\u201d, adding: \u201cIt\u2019s just such a pity because everything was going so bloody well up to about three months ago.
\u201cIf you take Virgin \u2013 our cruise ships were booming, our airlines were booming, our health clubs were full. They are still OK, but you just sort of feel, eurgh! If he continues he\u2019s in such danger of doing so much damage in the world.\u201d
Transatlantic flying is the most lucrative part of Virgin Atlantic\u2019s business but Branson said the US risked isolation. He said there could be a world \u201cwhere Europe, Australia, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, China \u2026 build a powerhouse in years to come. There is a big market out there, which you could find America gets excluded from.\u201d
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Shai Weiss, the chief executive of Virgin Atlantic, said the demand for US flights to the UK had been weak amid recent economic uncertainty.
But, he added: \u201cThe flipside is that the UK can be a beneficiary of this. The pound is stronger and we are transitioning to a period where bookings are coming more from the UK than the US.\u201d
Weiss said there was no sign, however, that Britons were avoiding the US \u2013 with the falling dollar instead very likely to lure more tourists: \u201cWe haven\u2019t seen the dramatic shift like we have for Canada to the US and we don\u2019t expect to see it. There have been no statements that Britain should be the 52nd state.\u201d
Meanwhile, Branson defended Virgin\u2019s decision to start flights to Riyadh \u2013 despite the airline\u2019s previous championing of diversity<\/a> and the notoriously illiberal Saudi regime. Branson is due to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Thursday, having previously pulled out of planned investment<\/a> after the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi<\/a>.
The entrepreneur said the Saudis had \u201cmade a lot of changes. It\u2019s by no means perfect, but it\u2019s definitely moved dramatically in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virgin Atlantic founder says \u2018erratic\u2019 decisions from US president have been \u2018awful for everyone\u2019Sir Richard Branson has attacked Donald Trump\u2019s policies as \u201cdoing so much damage\u201d to the world, adding that he did not believe the US president\u2019s actions were backed by most Americans.The Virgin Atlantic founder warned that the \u201cerratic and unpredictable\u201d actions of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":134838,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}