The Trump / May press conference went as well as the Prime Minister’s team could have hoped. The new president was effusive about Brexit saying it was a ‘wonderful thing’, a ‘fantastic thing’ and declaring that it’ll be a ‘tremendous asset’ for the UK. He was also warm about May personally, predicting that their relationship was going to be ‘fantastic’ and opining that they had already hit it off.
Usefully for May, Trump also didn’t say anything outrageous, by his standards, at the press conference. In response to the BBC, he said that the US wouldn’t torture because Defence Secretary Mattis’s objections overrode his own personal belief that it worked.
May shoehorned into her statement that Trump, who has previously called Nato ‘obsolete’, had told her that he backed Nato 100 percent — and crucially, Trump did not dissent from this. This means that May has something to take back to other European leaders to show that she is moving Trump into a better place, and not just trying to cosy up to him. Trump meanwhile was pleased with her call for all Nato members to spend 2 percent of GDP on defence.
At the start of the press conference, May confirmed that Trump will be coming to the UK on a state visit later this year. Given Trump’s enthusiasm for the Royal Family and his love of status, this invitation will have gone down well with him and greased the diplomatic wheels. But I suspect that the protests that will greet Trump’s visit will come close to rivalling those that greeted George W Bush in 2003. However, overall May has got pretty much everything out of this visit to Washington that she wanted.
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