Apocalypse Don!
As his Hollywood-style copter-cade flies in to Davos, Trump vows: I will come to UK
DONALD Trump will visit the UK later this year after yesterday telling Theresa May: ‘We love your country.’
The US President gushed about his ‘really great relationship’ with the Prime Minister and pledged a ‘tremendous increase’ in trade.
As the pair met at Davos, Mr Trump said he wanted to correct a ‘false rumour’ of a rift, sparked by his decision to cancel a visit to London to open the new US embassy.
Last night Downing Street announced officials were ‘finalising the details’ of a visit by the President in the second half of this year, appearing to confirm reports he will not be invited to Prince Harry’s wedding in May.
Government sources said Mr Trump’s trip, which is expected in late summer, will be a working visit rather than a full state visit.
Following the encounter, their first face-toface meeting since last September, Mr Trump tweeted: ‘Great bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May of the United Kingdom, affirming the special relationship and our commitment to work together on key national security challenges and economic opportunities.’ As they sat side by side at the World Economic Forum, Mr Trump heaped praise on Mrs May and declared that they ‘like each other a lot’.
He told reporters: ‘We have had a great discussion. We are on the same wavelength. The Prime Minister and myself have had a really great relationship, although some people don’t necessarily believe that, but I can tell you I have tremendous respect for the Prime Minister and the job she is doing. And I think the feeling is mutual from the standpoint of liking each other a lot.’
Mr Trump and Mrs May publicly clashed in November after the President retweeted anti-Muslim posts by a British far-Right group, but yesterday he denied any cooling in the relationship.
He said: ‘So there was a little bit of a false rumour out there and I just wanted to correct it frankly, because we have great respect for everything you are doing and we love your country because it is really great.
‘We are working on transactions in terms of economic development and trade, maybe most important militarily. We are very much joined at the hip when it comes to the military.
‘We have the same ideas … There is nothing that would happen to you that we won’t be there to fight for you and you know that.’ Mrs May said she and the President enjoyed ‘a great discussion’ in their meeting which had been scheduled to last half an hour but was extended to 40 minutes.
She added: ‘We continue to have that really special relationship between the UK and the United States, standing shoulder to shoulder because we are facing the same challenges across the world.
‘As you say, we are working together to defeat those challenges and to meet them. And alongside that, working for a good trade relationship in the future which will be to both our benefits.
‘So the UK and the US both do well out of this. It has been great to see you today.’ Mr Trump reaffirmed his commitment to signing a post-Brexit trade deal with the UK as soon as possible.
He said: ‘Trade is going to increase many times and we look forward to that.’