A surreal dinner, and a dressing down for business
‘It was completely bizarre watching the firestorm on Twitter … It was like a comedy of errors’
DONALD TRUMP berated British business leaders during a series of one-onone chats at his Blenheim Palace dinner, The Daily Telegraph has been told.
The US president used 90-second conversations with at least three UK chief executives to deliver “a b---------”, according to attendees at the dinner.
One figure at the black-tie event on Thursday night said some businessmen were reluctant to hand over their personal phone numbers to the president for fear of future dressing-downs delivered directly.
Another said executives did not want to talk to the president, noting: “Basically, it was a good thing if you didn’t speak to him.”
It is unclear what triggered Mr Trump’s ire, though he is known to be a forthright supporter of US businesses, ever willing to call out those he believes are hurting American companies.
People who attended the dinner at Winston Churchill’s birthplace described an amicable mood as Mr Trump and his wife Melania were treated to a spectacle of pomp and ceremony by Mrs May and her husband Philip.
The president was given a tour of a Churchill exhibition at the palace and later emphasised how long he and Mrs May chatted through world issues that night.
The Duke of Marlborough, a relative of Churchill, began proceedings at the dinner with a 10-minute speech in which he dared to poke fun at the president’s building past.
“I know, sir, you like to build upwards. As you can see here, we prefer to build sideways,” the Duke joked according to one UK government source present.
Mrs May, who spoke for a similar amount of time, used her speech to talk up the importance of UK-US trade and the special relationship.
Mr Trump then rose, referencing his Scottish mother as he spoke about his love of Britain. “There was nothing controversial. It was very nice, all very affectionate. It was half unscripted,” said a UK minister present.
The president told an anecdote about how he once called the actor Sean Connery when he was struggling to get permission to develop the Turnberry golf course, according to one source. Mr Trump said that after the call “all the approvals came through” in rapid time – joking that Connery did a better job than his team of planners.
A dinner of Scottish salmon, beef and strawberries with clotted cream ice cream was served to guests, along with wine.
There was little sign in Mr Trump and Mrs May’s body language of tension over the president’s critical interview in The Sun, which the Prime Minister is believed to have been made aware of just before the dinner.
However, when the front page dropped on social media near the end of the dinner, announcing that Mr Trump had said Mrs May’s new Brexit plan could “kill” a trade deal, it was spotted by some present.
One aide to a Cabinet minister said of Mr Trump in blunt terms: “There was an awkwardness – a furry ginger elephant in the room.”
An executive there said it was “completely bizarre” watching the crucial comments create a firestorm on Twitter while Mr Trump and Mrs May showed no signs of hostility.
“The evening felt like a comedy of errors,” the source added, calling it “surreal”.