Well, Theresa May managed to lay on the praise towards Trump without seeming too sycophantic, which made their press conference a reasonable success. May congratulated Trump on his ‘stunning’ electoral victory while describing Britain’s future as ‘open to the world’.
May seems to be presenting herself as a reassuring ‘third way’ leader between the frightening wildness of Trumpism and the suffocating multilateralism of the EU. It is silly to call her Thatcher to his Reagan only a few days into the Trump presidency, but certainly today could mark the beginning of a very important ‘renewed’ Special Relationship.
At times, May sounded like a schoolteacher, nodding approvingly at Trump as though he had been a naughty boy who has promised to mend his ways, such as when she gestured at him saying he was ‘100 per cent’ behind NATO — a sentiment he later endorsed.
It may appall left-liberal progressives and self-important journalists — the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg really mounted a high horse as she berated Trump for his remarks on abortion — but it’s hard to argue rationally that a close friendship between Brexit Britain and the Trump administration is all bad news. We now have an ally who is the most powerful man in the world — how different it could have been had Hillary Clinton won the election. On that score, as Americans say, what’s not to like?
Of course, May will have to walk a delicate line between friendliness towards Trump and supping with a long spoon when it comes to his harder ‘America First’ nationalism. But so far the new new new Special Relationship looks promising.
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