Trump agrees to meet May in Davos after pressure from UK
President ‘looks forward’ to greeting Prime Minister at World Economic Forum in Swiss resort next week
DONALD TRUMP and Theresa May will meet at the World Economic Forum in Davos next week after the White House appeared to cave in under pressure from Downing Street.
White House officials had initially indicated the US president would not meet Mrs May in the Swiss resort, despite agreeing to talks with Emmanuel Macron, the French president.
With only days left before the summit, the US administration said time had been found for the two leaders to have a meeting on the margins of the gathering after all.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said: “President Trump looks forward to having a bilateral meeting with UK Prime Minister May in Davos next week to further strengthen the US-UK special relationship. Other details on the president’s schedule at Davos will be announced next week.”
The news came as Mr Trump looked set to snub Mrs May following his decision to cancel a visit to London to open the US embassy, which is moving from Mayfair to Nine Elms.
The cancellation is believed to have surprised Mrs May, although Rex Tillerson, the US secretary of state, later claimed that Mr Trump had taken the decision because the Prime Minister was preoccupied with Brexit negotiations. Mrs May is said to have been urgently seeking a “clear the air” meeting with the president at the summit, amid growing speculation over a breakdown in relations between the White House and Downing Street.
But by Thursday, Number 10 had almost given up hope of a Davos meeting and blamed diary clashes for the initial failure to set one up.
Last night, following the announcement that the two leaders had now agreed to meet, Mrs May’s spokesman said: “The Prime Minister will have a bilateral meeting with President Trump in the margins of the World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland next week.”
It was expected the two leaders would discuss issues including North Korea.
Mrs May is due to be in Davos on Wednesday and Thursday.
Mr Trump is scheduled to arrive on Thursday morning. Last week, a US source told The Daily Telegraph that there was not time in Mr Trump’s schedule for him to meet Mrs May, describing Davos as an “extremely quick trip”.
British officials had been trying to “engineer” a meeting since it was announced that both leaders would be in Davos, which is usually the preserve of chief government finance ministers.
But the early response from the White House was said to have been lukewarm.
It will be the first time a US president has attended Davos since Bill Clinton did so in 2000.
Mr Trump is expected to use his appearance in Davos to promote his America First strategy at an event associated with the rise of globalisation.
Mrs May was the first world leader to visit Mr Trump in the White House following his election victory. But fears over the status of the special relationship were intensified after Mr Trump’s cancellation of the trip to open the embassy in London.
He blamed that decision on the embassy being in an “off location” and costing too much in a $1.2 billion “bad deal”.
The president has accepted an invitation for a state visit, but no date has been confirmed amid the prospect that there would be widespread protests.
Mr Trump has indicated he does not want to be faced by mass opposition and there have been suggestions he could make a lower-profile working visit without the “bells and whistles” of a state visit.