The PM must put her US connections to use

IT SEEMS a good deal longer than 10 days since Donald Trump was sworn in as President: he has in that time generated more controversy than some presidents manage during their entire tenure. But the most controversial move of all — trumping even his confirmation that he would approve the wall between the US and Mexico —was the temporary ban on travel to the US from seven mostly Muslim states and a temporary ban on refugees — indefinitely, in the case of those from Syria.

In the face of protests all over the US and a flurry of legal challenges to the move — 16 state attorney-generals have said the order is unconstitutional and several federal judges have temporarily halted the deportation of visa holders — the President seems unperturbed. He has denied that the move is anti-Muslim and says visas will be issued again once “secure policies” are in place.

Meanwhile, a backlash is under way. Iraq, for instance, is one of the seven states identified for the travel ban (interestingly, Saudi Arabia, from which most of the 9/11 attackers came, is not), yet it is a close US ally — its government is in effect an American creation. If this is how the US treats its allies, it will end up with far fewer of them. Mr Trump will find his campaign against IS stymied if he manages to unite the Muslim world against him.

If the move is damaging politically it is no less disastrous for US business — in California, tech executives are incredulous about the potential effects of a travel ban on an industry which relies heavily on the mobility of a global workforce. Mr Trump can claim he has done nothing he did not promise on his campaign but few expected him to deliver on those rash promises quite so soon.

The Government has made clear that it is standing by its invitation to the President to make a state visit to the UK despite so many people objecting to it; on this page the Mayor, Sadiq Khan, calls on Mrs May to rescind it. In fact, the situation may well change between now and any visit but in the meantime Mrs May must do what she can to make clear to Mr Trump that his ban is retrograde, notwithstanding the Government’s success in negating its effect on British citizens with dual nationality. She has forged a relationship with Mr Trump at some political cost to herself; now she must use it. The alarming thing is, Mr Trump is only just warming up: what’s next?