Donald Trump Hails Brexit Vote: 'People Want to Take Their Country Back'

Donald Trump on Friday drew a connection between the United Kingdom’s historic vote to leave the European Union and his own political rise in the United States.

“I really do see a parallel between what’s happening in the United States and what’s happening here,” Trump said during a televised news conference from his Trump Turnberry resort in Scotland, where he had come for a break from the campaign trail to tend to his business interests. “People want to see borders. They don’t necessarily want people pouring into their country that they don’t know who they are and where they come from.”

Trump, whose has unnerved many Republicans by traveling abroad in the midst of a brutal stretch for his campaign, did not address the historic “Brexit” vote during his opening remarks. He spoke instead about the golf course he had come to promote, turning to the referendum only when asked. He was greeted by a protesters carrying golf balls with Nazi swastikas on them.

Throughout his campaign, Trump has been an advocate of tightening borders in the U.S. He wants to build a wall along the border with Mexico and temporarily ban Muslims from entering country. Many British advocates for leaving the E.U. had focused on migrants pouring into the Europe.

“People want to take their country back, they want to have independence in a sense, and you see it all over Europe,” Trump said.

Asked how his administration would approach the Brexit vote, Trump said: “You just have to embrace it. It’s the will of the people.”

Write to Tessa Berenson at tessa.berenson@time.com.