Boris Johnson’s quip was a reference to a comment by U.S. President Barack Obama during Britain’s EU referendum campaign that the country would be in the back of the queue if it voted to leave the bloc.
 
The new Foreign Minister was a top campaigner for Leave whilst the United States stood by the former Prime Minister David Cameron who supported Stay.
 
Asked by a Sky News reporter whether Johnson planned to apologize to Obama for controversially saying the “part-Kenyan” president was biased against Britain because of “an ancestral dislike of the British empire”, Johnson said: “The United States of America will be in the front of the queue”.
 
“We have a massive opportunity in this country to make a great success of our new relationship with Europe and with the world, and I’m very excited to be asked to play a part in that”, he said.
 
The US State Department has also reacted to Boris Johnson's appointment as Foreign Secretary. State Department spokesman Mark Toner, who appeared to obviously stifle a laugh, when told of the appointment, said “We are always going to be able to work with the British, no matter who is occupying the role of the Foreign Secretary because of our deep abiding special relationship with the United Kingdom”.
 
“We congratulate Foreign Secretary [Philip] Hammond on his new role [as Chancellor of Exchequer] and we look forward to engaging with Boris Johnson as the new foreign secretary.
 
This is something that, frankly, goes beyond – a relationship that goes beyond personalities. And it is an absolutely critical period in certainly England’s history, but also the US-UK relationship, so absolutely we’re committed to working productively going forward”.