Trump’s snub for ‘schoolmistress’ May could herald disastrous visit
LET us cast our minds back to December 2015 when London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, was asked about Donald Trump’s proposals to ban Muslims from entering the US. “I think Donald Trump is clearly out of his mind if he thinks that is a sensible way to proceed,” he said, adding that the billionaire had displayed a “stupefying ignorance that makes him frankly unfit to hold the office of president of the United States”.
Fast forward to today and Trump has lauded erstwhile British foreign secretary Boris Johnson as a “great friend of mine” and suggested they meet during his visit to the UK.
He has also said that it is for the British people to decide if Theresa May should stay on as prime minister.
It is a surprising intervention on a number of levels. Firstly, the US president is rumoured to bear grudges and certainly his Twitter feed shows he does not take kindly to personal slights.
Secondly, it looks like a rather ham-fisted intervention in British domestic politics at a time when the Conservative Party shows every sign of falling apart.
But as clumsy as Trump’s remarks appear, it is hardly the time American presidents have stuck their oar in.
During the Brexit referendum, Barack Obama warned Britain would go to the “back of the queue” for any trade deal with the US if the first UK pulled out of the EU.
It has since emerged the former president made what was a private warning public at the request of David Cameron.
Ronald Reagan went out of his way to snub Neil Kinnock, the Labour leader, when he visited Washington by granting him a perfunctory 25-minute meeting in 1984.
Donald Trump has lauded Boris Johnson as a ‘great friend of mine’ and suggested that they meet during his visit to the UK. Trump has also said that it is for the British people to decide if Theresa May should stay on as prime minister
There was a second meeting in the run-up to the 1987 general election when the White House and Labour Party officials were unable even to agree on how long the two men spent together.
The trip was a disaster. Reagan mistook Denis Healey for the UK ambassador and White House officials briefed that Kinnock had been warned that he was putting the Nato alliance in danger.
Labour furiously denied that any such warning had been given.
It is generally accepted Kinnock walked into a trap, with the administration determined to undermine the Labour leader’s efforts to portray himself as a statesman and prime minister in waiting.
The kneecapping of the Labour leader was hardly surprising, given both Washington’s hostility to the party’s defence policy and Ronald Reagan’s closeness to Margaret Thatcher.
It would be fair to say that Trump’s relationship with Theresa May is considerably cooler.
According to Washington sources, Trump dislikes what he regards as her “schoolmistress tone” and has been angered by her occasional public criticism such as when she rebuked him for retweeting racist Britain First videos.
For better or worse, Trump makes no attempt to hide his personal feelings whether on Twitter or when questioned by journalists.
Personal relationships between the occupants of Downing Street and those of the White House have varied. In the 60s, Lyndon Johnson reportedly did not trust Harold Wilson, while Roosevelt and Churchill were by all accounts close, having first met as far back as 1917.
IRRESPECTIVE of how they got on, presidents and prime ministers have, until now, managed to rub along and at least have a professional working relationship. Of course, they were aided by the buffer of diplomats and officials who burrowed away behind the scenes to iron out any difficulties.
This is arguably harder now, given Trump’s unique personal style.
Given the unfolding chaos at Westminster, one suspects any president would have privately felt that a meeting with Vladimir Putin would be easier than one with Theresa May.
Only Donald Trump would have said so publicly. But it would, perhaps, be unfair on this occasion to condemn him for being honest. (© Daily Telegraph, London)