Tories have to dump Trump – or get sucked into his abyss

I’VE just returned from a fortnight in Los Angeles. It was an informative, as well as relaxing, trip. The Dodgers really are in contention for their first baseball World Series title in 30 years. Rae’s diner really does serve the best breakfast in southern California. And unless she cuts him loose, Donald Trump is going to drag Theresa May and the Tory Party to political oblivion.

Charlottesville – or more specifically Trump’s response to Charlottesville – is already being viewed in the US as the defining moment of his presidency. It’s difficult to properly communicate the reaction to the President of the United States appearing on television after the murder of a young woman by neo-Nazis, and then attempting to draw moral equivalence between her and her killers. Watching Fox News, I saw long standing supporters of Trump literally weeping on air as they tried to rationalise and come to terms with his comments.

And then I saw Theresa May’s response. Since the Election, May has defied her critics and stabilised her government. The deal with the DUP was brokered effectively. The Queen’s Speech was delivered successfully. The attempt by Jeremy Corbyn’s hard-Left supporters to force a re-run of the Election through a wave of street protest was repulsed. But on Trump she has a blind-spot, and unless she acts to remove it, it will cost her and her party dear.

It was May who first recognised the toxicity of the ‘Nasty Party’ brand. There is nothing she could do or say that would more effectively laminate that branding than to continue to be seen walking hand-in-hand with the self-appointed Grand Wizard in Chief.

THERE are potentially major political dividends for a Prime Minister who can cultivate a close relationship with a strong and successful President. The Thatcher-Reagan axis defined the 20th Century and provided the foundation for their own domestic popularity. But potential catastrophe also awaits the prime minister who lashes themselves to a weak or failing presidency. Just look at the way Tony Blair and Labour continue to pay the political ‘blood price’ for his courtship of George W. Bush.

There has never been a weaker or more unpopular President at this stage of his term of office than Trump. For all the talk of ‘ Teflon Don’, Trump’s approval ratings continue to plummet. Even Gerald Ford was more popular.

In the wake of her disastrous Election performance, Theresa May needs to been seen palling around with Trump like she needs a hole in the head. And she and the Conservative Party need to be seen rolling out the red carpet for him on a state visit like they need a hole in the head, chest, arms and feet.

There is no upside for a lovein with Trump. His unpopularity here actually exceeds his unpopularity in the US. Yes, Mrs May has a responsibility to defend and nurture the special relationship. But that relationship was forged through defeating Nazism, not lauding it.

Speaking t o Government insiders, there is an acknowledgment of all this. But that self-awareness then founders – like so much else – on the rock of Brexit. May is desperate for a US trade deal, they explain.

But even here, her wooing of Trump is proving her undoing. In the US they can sense May’s desperation. And that desperation is now creating its doubts about the viability of Brexit itself. Last week the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal published its latest view of the Brexit negotiations. They had become, in its words, ‘A flight of fancy’. On the two recently published position papers on a future trading relationship with the EU, the WSJ believed ‘neither amounts to much’.

AGAIN, it’s not liberal America proffering this view, but the Wall Street Journal, capitalism’ s in-flight magazine. And it believes Brexit, and May’s attempts to sell Brexit, are floundering.

Trump is well aware of this. And he is a not a man prone to showing loyalty towards failing allies. He purged his original national security adviser, spokesman, chief of staff and chief strategist when he judged they were no longer useful to him. And he will have little use for a wounded British Prime Minister who keeps prostrating herself at his feet in the desperate hope of a Brexit bail-out. Just as May has little use in aligning herself with a President whose mental health is now being openly questioned, and whose removal from office is being seriously discussed.

On Friday, Trump adviser Roger Stone warned that any moves against Trump would lead to a new ‘civil war’ and that any member of Congress who dared vote for impeachment would ‘ be endangering their own life’.

Is this really where May plans to focus her diplomatic efforts over the next year? On building her relationship with a President who doesn’t just want to defend statues of Robert E. Lee but is prepared to follow him in drawing his sword against his fellow Americans?

The Trump presidency is hurtling towards the abyss. Theresa May needs to cut him loose. Because if she doesn’t, it’s not only his own presidency and country that will dragged to disaster.