Summary
- Donald Trump and Theresa May have re-affirmed their commitment to the US/UK special relationship during a short but friendly news conference in the White House. May is the first foreign leader to meet the new president and she congratulated Trump on his “stunning” election victory. Trump said that he expected to have a “fantastic relationship” with the prime minister. The press conference passed off without any awkward disagreement, although May was later criticised by opposition politicians in the UK for not confronting Trump on issues like climate change, human rights, Iran and Israel.
- May announced that the Queen has invited Trump to come to the UK later this year on a state visit.
- May said that Trump had told her he was “100% behind Nato”. Addressing Trump, she said:
Today we have reaffirmed our unshakeable commitment to this alliance. Mr President, I think you confirmed that you are 100% behind Nato.
- Trump claimed that he and May would get on because they were both “people persons”. When it was put to him that they were quite different, he said:
I am not as brash as you might think. I think we are going to get along very well ... I am a people person - I think you are also Theresa.
I can often tell how I will get along with somebody very early and I believe we are going to have a fantastic relationship.
This surprised some observers in the UK who might know May better than Trump. This is from Newsnight’s Ian Katz.
Not sure the PM has ever been called "a people person" before pic.twitter.com/Dbk3w9bWOO
— Ian Katz (@iankatz1000) January 27, 2017
May was less effusive, but she said she thought their relationship was good. She also said she thought they shared a commitment to acting in the interests of “ordinary working people”.
As the president himself said, I think we have already struck up a good relationship. You ask what we have in common. I think if you look at the approach that we are both taking, one of the things we have in common is that we want to put the interests of ordinary working people right up there centre stage.
She also said that the point about having a special relationship was that it allowed them to disagree.
I have been listening to the president and the president has been listening to me. That’s the point of having a conversation and a dialogue.
There will be times when we disagree and issues on which we disagree. The point of the special relationship is that we are able to have that open and frank discussion so we are able to make that clear when it happens.
But I am clear also that there are many issues on which the UK and the US stand alongside one another, many issues on which we agree.
- Trump said that he will not impose his pro-torture views on General James Mattis, the defence secretary. Asked about his own support for torture Trump said:
We have a great general who has just been appointed secretary of defence, general James Mattis and he has stated publicly that he does not necessarily believe in torture or waterboarding - or however you want to define it. Enhanced interrogation would be words that a lot of people would like to use.
I don’t necessarily agree but he will override because I am giving him that power. He is an expert, he is highly respected, he is the general’s general.
- Trump played down the prospects of lifting sanctions on Russia soon. It was “too early” to talk about that, he said. But he also said he wanted to have a good relationship with President Putin. Asked about Putin, he said:
I don’t know the gentleman. I hope we have a fantastic relationship. That’s possible and it’s also possible that we won’t. We will see what happens ...
I have had many times where I thought I would get along with people and I don’t like them at all. And I have had some where I didn’t think I was going to have much of a relationship and it turned out to be a great relationship.
- Trump said Brexit would be a “wonderful thing” for Britain. He said:
I think Brexit is going to be a wonderful thing for your country.
When it irons out you are going to have your own identity and you are going to have the people that you want in your country and you are going to be able to make free trade deals without having somebody watching you and what you are doing.
I think it will end up being a fantastic thing for the United Kingdom. I think in the end it will be a tremendous asset, not a tremendous liability.
That’s all from me for tonight.
Thanks for the comments.
Updated
This is the question from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that impressed Tim Farron. (See 8.08pm.) She asked:
Mr President, you’ve said before that torture works, you’ve praised Russia, you’ve said you want to ban some Muslims from coming to America, you’ve suggested there should be punishment for abortion. For many people in Britain those sound like alarming beliefs. What do you say to our viewers at home who are worried about some of your views and worried about you becoming the leader of the free world?
Trump did not look particularly comfortable about being asked this, but he managed to laugh it off. Turning to Theresa May, who called Kuenssberg to ask a question, he said:
This was your choice of a question? ... There goes that relationship.
The Press Association has filed this on the exchange of gifts.
Donald Trump presented Theresa May with a picture of his illustrious predecessor Abraham Lincoln as a gift on her visit to him in the White House.
The framed image from a 1865 edition of Harper’s Weekly magazine shows Lincoln swearing the Oath of Office on the same copy of the Bible used by Trump in his own inauguration as president last week.
He told the prime minister that the gift symbolised the connection between his inauguration and Lincoln’s.
And, in a note accompanying the gift, he quoted a line from Lincoln’s inauguration address which said: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
May presented her host with a traditional Scottish cup of friendship, known as a quaich, reflecting the US president’s Scottish ancestry, as the son of Mary MacLeod from the Isle of Lewis.
Pronounced “quake”, the cup’s two handles are intended to signify trust on the part of the giver and the receiver.
First Lady Melania Trump gave a pair of silver cufflinks by New York designer David Yurman for May’s husband Philip.
And she received a gift of a hamper of produce from the prime minister’s country residence Chequers, including apple juice, damson jam and marmalade, as well as Bakewell tarts and cranberry and white chocolate “shorties”.
This is interesting.
Steve Bannon, top Trump adviser, went out of way to shake hands of Theresa May's joint chiefs of staff before speech https://t.co/IdspGVQzL3 pic.twitter.com/ETDoKdhgrO
— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) January 27, 2017
May’s co-chiefs of staff are Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill. They both criticised Trump on Twitter when he was a presidential candidate, but have since been doing their best to repair relations. May sent them both to New York to meet the Trump team before Christmas.
Here is the Lib Dem leader Tim Farron on the press conference. Like Emily Thornberry, Farron is also accusing May of not challenging Trump on key issues.
Who knows what Theresa May has secured here apart from vague platitudes. Whilst she put a lot of words in his mouth, he will likely set the record straight in the early hours of the morning on Twitter.
Theresa May clearly spent her time with Trump dodging his despicable comments on torture, on women, on Muslims and on Mexicans. It took a BBC journalist to say what our own prime minister should have.
It is clear he is wrong on a great many things but instead of seeing an opportunity to question his positions she just stood there as he shrugged off promoting torture.
Farron is referring to the BBC journalist Laura Kuenssberg. (See 6.24pm.)
Here are three British commentators writing about the press conference.
As far as the coalition that matters to May right now – that is, Conservative MPs – the event was an unlimited success. She kept the idea of a trade deal on the road, but didn’t bend the knee to Trump. It was a tricky tightrope, but she walked it well.
And Trump has tweeted himself about the press conference.
An honor to have U.K. Prime Minister @theresa_may join me at the @WhiteHouse. #ICYMI- our joint press conference: https://t.co/4pHDM45Fpe pic.twitter.com/wBiWxA3sFz
— President Trump (@POTUS) January 27, 2017
Here is the historian Simon Schama (who is no fan of Trump’s, to put it mildly) on the press conference.
Basically what Trumpolini wanted from May was the Downton Abbey effect. She handed it over with the Queen and the marmelade. That's it
— Simon Schama (@simon_schama) January 27, 2017
Labour says May's failure to confront Trump over difficult issues was 'shameful'
And here is Emily Thornberry, the Labour MP and shadow foreign secretary, on the press conference.
The prime minister promised to speak frankly to President Trump, and tell him where she disagreed with him, but we heard nothing of the sort. She appears only to have discussed those issues on which we already know they agree: trade and security. But we heard nothing about climate change, about respect for human and reproductive rights, about war crimes in Syria, about the nuclear deal with Iran, or about the illegal settlements in the West Bank.
The prime minister referred to a special relationship based on our shared history and interests, but she has to realise that it is also a relationship based on shared values, and if the president is going to discard those values, whether by embracing torture or ignoring climate change, then she must be willing to tell him frankly that he is wrong. Her failure to do so today - even behind closed doors - was nothing less than shameful.
(Thornberry’s statement is based on what was said at the press conference. But May and Trump were continuing their talks afterwards, and it is possible that May is raising some of these more problematic issues now. Equally, it is possible that she isn’t.)
The Daily Telegraph (which is pro-Brexit) likes this quote from the press conference.
"[#Brexit] will be a tremendous asset not a burden," said Donald Trump during his joint press conference with Theresa May #MayTrump pic.twitter.com/WKvGzkBSwG
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) January 27, 2017
But the Labour MP Chris Bryant thinks it is patronising.
I really don't need my country to be patronised by Trump. We've always had our own identity.
— Chris Bryant MP (@RhonddaBryant) January 27, 2017
Here is more on the length of the press conference. This is from the LA Times’ Mike Memoli.
Trump-May news conference clocked in at just over 18 minutes.
— Mike Memoli (@mikememoli) January 27, 2017
Last Obama-Cameron news conference: 55 minutes
Here is Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour party (the UK’s main opposition party) commenting on the press conference.
Theresa May failed to challenge Trump & stand up for our values today - she prefers a US corporate trade deal for a bargain basement Brexit
— Jeremy Corbyn MP (@jeremycorbyn) January 27, 2017
Here are the two photos of the day from Stefan Rousseau, the UK Press Association’s chief political photographer.
Photo du Jour: Theresa May meets Pres Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington DC. By Stefan Rousseau/PA pic.twitter.com/KJk8vN5n5t
— Stefan Rousseau (@StefanRousseau) January 27, 2017
Photo du Jour 2/2: Pres Donald Trump holds the hand of Prime Minister Theresa May at The White House today. By Stefan Rousseau/PA pic.twitter.com/qtZFMvQf1A
— Stefan Rousseau (@StefanRousseau) January 27, 2017
This is from the Guardian’s Julian Borger.
Source in room: when May turned to Trump and said he was "100%" behind Nato he mouthed the word 'true'. Maybe that's as good as it gets
— Julian Borger (@julianborger) January 27, 2017
On Sky News just now Mike Gapes, a Labour MP (and therefore an opponent of Theresa May’s in the Commons) has just praised the way May used the press conference to say Trump was “100% in favour of Nato”. Gapes said May made the point in such a way as to make it impossible for Trump to deny it.
Here is the text of the statement issued today about President Trump’s call with his Mexican opposite number, President Enrique Pena Nieto.
Text of the US/Mexico Joint Statement on today's phone call between Presidents Trump and Peña Nieto. pic.twitter.com/iHNrpvG12r
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) January 27, 2017
American journalists are commenting on how short the press conference was.
Warp speed news conference. Opening statements, Two US and two UK reporters called on. Lasted 18 minutes. On to the working lunch. pic.twitter.com/eWK7GzFtDC
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) January 27, 2017
At 18 minutes, the Trump-May press conference may have set a land speed record, especially compared to Obama's 6-part questions and answers.
— Gregory Korte (@gregorykorte) January 27, 2017
British journalists are probably grateful it happened at all. Theresa May does not seem to like press conferences and hardly ever holds them.
Here is Sir Christopher Meyer’s verdict on the press conference. Meyer (@SirSocks) is a former British ambassador to Washington.
Former UK Amb @SirSocks: Trump looked “quite presidential” & PM May got the moderate answers from him she wanted. https://t.co/xYxCkUgd7j
— Christiane Amanpour (@camanpour) January 27, 2017
And here is a better picture of the hand-holding moment.
Here’s another picture of Trump and May holding hands.
PM and President holding hands to go down the steps on White House colonnade pic.twitter.com/hQIOs4jkKh
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) January 27, 2017
Here is a picture of President Trump briefing holding Theresa May’s hand as they walked to the press conference.
It is hard to tell, but from the video footage May did not seem entirely happy about such familiarity.
This is from the White House pool report, about what happened just before the press conference.
Pool was brought outside to the Rose Garden to watch Potus and PM May walk down the colonnade and into the Palm Room.
Potus and May exited door near the lower press office at 108.
They were holding hands down the ramp very briefly.
Potus ignored questions and was conversing with PM May.
At 1:09 they entered into the Plam Room.
Gary Cohn, Michael Flynn, Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, Reince Priebus, Hope Hicks, Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer preceded the two leaders
Spicer said the meeting was “Really good.”
Pool consensus is that it’s a “crisp” January day.
Trump and May's press conference - Snap verdict
So, Donald Trump can act presidential. After a week that has seen multiple instances of Trump outraging Washington norms, he managed to get through a press conference lasting about 20-odd minutes sounding measured and reasonably diplomatic. He stressed that he was willing to defer to his defence secretary, James Mattis, on the subject of torture (Mattis doesn’t think it works, even though Trump does), he insisted that he wanted good relations with Mexico and he played down the prospect of an early lifting of Russian sanctions.
From Theresa May’s point of view, this will be a relief and, on the basis of what we have seen so far (ie, assuming they don’t have a big row over lunch) she will be able to mark this up as a considerable success. The Madcap Trump who alarms British MPs so much (and half the world too) never materialised, and although they can’t really claim to know each other - they had only spent about an hour in each other’s company when they arrived at the press conference - Trump spoke about May warmly and his compliments at least seemed sincere.
It helped that she had something to offer. American presidents normally have to wait a few years before they get invited to the UK for a state visit (that’s not just a normal visit, but the ceremonial Full English, with a state banquet at Buckingham Palace and all the accompanying royal paraphernalia) but Trump is very keen to get one (apparently he wants to play golf at Balmoral) and May was able to oblige. In return, she seems to have got an assurance on Nato (see 6.16pm) and, perhaps, an assurance that Trump will not overturn the West’s sanctions policy towards Russia overnight.
In Trump-speak, it’s a deal, and one that satisfies both sides.
What the poor Queen makes of the prospect of having to entertain Trump, though, is quite another matter ...
Updated
May calls the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn.
Q: You say we will have a good trade deal, and you support Nato. But you keep changing your position. And how will the two of you get on because you are so differrent?
Trump says he thinks he and May can get on. He says he is not as brash as people think.
He denies changing his stance. His views on trade have been the same for years. When he visited Scotland he said Brexit would happen. He was scorned in the press. But it happened, he says.
Brexit will be good for the UK, he says. It will be able to make its own trade deal.
He had a bad experience in his business life getting approvals from the EU.
(Is this a reference to the planning application in Ireland that he spoke about in his interview with Michael Gove?)
May says she and Trump want to put the interests of ordinary people first, the people who feel the odds are stacked against them. She and Trump both feel that these people deserve a fairer deal.
And that’s it. The press conference is over.
I will post a snap verdict, a summary and reaction soon.
Trump says he thinks he has a good relationship with the Mexican president. But the US cannot continue to lose jobs. The US will renegotiate trade deals. That will be good for both countries. His call with the Mexican president today was very friendly. They will negotiate over the coming months.
He says he will represent the people of the US, but not as they have been represented in the past.
May says the relationship between the US and Mexico is for the US.
Trump says he will accept Mattis’s decision not to use torture
May calls the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.
Q: Where did you disagree with the president? Did he listen?
May says there will be issues where she and Trump disagree. The key thing is that they talk.
Q: You say torture works, you have praised Russia, you suggest there should be punishment for abortion. What do you say to people worried about you?
Turning to May, Trump jokes: “This was your choice for a question.”
Trump says General Mattis, the new defence secretary, has said he does not believe in torture. He does not necessarily agree, Trump says. But he say Mattis will over-ride Trump on this. Trump will rely on him. But Mattis is the “general’s general”.
- Trump says he will accept Mattis’s decision not to use torture.
He says he does not know President Putin. He hopes they have a good relationship. He wants them to go after Isis together. How the relationship works out, he doesn’t know. Sometimes he thinks he will like someone, and he doesn’t like them at all. And sometimes he likes people he did not expect to like.
Updated
Trump plays down prospect of sanctions on Russian being lifted soon
Trump says May’s comments were “very nicely stated”.
Q: Tomorrow you will speak to the Russian President. What will you say to him? Will you lift sanctions?
Trump says a call has been set up. It is too early to talk about sanctions. But he wants a great relationship with all countries. With some countries that won’t be possible. He would like a great relationship with Russia and China. That would be a positive, not a negative.
- Trump plays down prospect of sanctions on Russian being lifted soon.
May says the UK wants sanctions to continue until the Minsk agreement is implemented.
Updated
May says they will talk about trade.
The US/UK defence relationship is the deepest of any two countries.
They will discuss how to take forward immediate high-level talks on trade, she says.
She says a trade deal between the two countries is in the national interests of both.
Today’s talks are a significant moment, she says.
May says Trump has confirmed he is '100% behind Nato'
May says they will dicusss the battle against Isis.
And they will discuss Nato.
- May says Trump has confirmed he is “100% behind Nato”.
UPDATE: I’ve corrected this quote. May said Trump was “100% behind Nato”, not 100% in favour of it, as the post originally said.
Updated
May says Trump has accepted invitation from the Queen to come to UK for a state visit later this year
Theresa May thanks Trump for inviting her so soon.
She congratulates him on his “stunning election victory”.
She says she has been able to convey the Queen’s hope that President Trump will come to the UK for a state visit later this year. Trump has accepted, she says.
- May says Trump has accepted invitation from the Queen to come to UK for a state visit later this year.
Trump calls May “Madam Prime Minister”.
Great days lie ahead for our two peoples, he says.
He thanks May for coming. It has been a great honour.
Trump and May's press conference
Donald Trump starts. He says the UK/US relationship has been a force for peace. We pledge our support for this relationship, he says.
He says the US respects the UK’s right to self-determination.
A free UK is a blessing to the world, he says.
According to the pool report, Theresa May is accompanied in the White House by Sir Kim Darroch, the British ambassador to Washington, May’s co-chiefs of staff, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, and Sir Mark Lyall Grant, national security adviser.
But there’s no Nigel.
After his election Trump posted a message on Twitter saying that Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, should be Britain’s ambassador to the US. It is still not entirely clear whether he was being serious, but his tweet caused some alarm in Downing Street, where it prompted May to redouble efforts to forge links with a leader who for most of his campaign was not taken at all seriously by the London establishment.
Updated
If you want to know what it is like to queue to get into a White House press conference, ITV’s political editor Robert Peston has posted a video on his Facebook page.
He says it will be a four-question press conference: two from the US media, and two from the UK media.
It is “quite exciting”, says Peston. But he does not sound very excited. Peston is famously lugubrious.
This is from BuzzFeed’s Jim Waterson. He’s only been in the White House for about half an hour, and already he’s talking Trump!
Talked to few US reporters at White House who laughed at idea a US-UK trade deal is a top priority for Trump right now. Typical lying media.
— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) January 27, 2017
We’ve got another half an hour or so to wait, according to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.
Press conference pushed back - maybe as much as half hour delay
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) January 27, 2017
That’s not at all unusual at events like this. It might be because there has been some last-minute hitch. Or it might be because Trump and May are getting along famously, and don’t want to be rushed.
Michael Gove, who was a leading pro-Brexit campaigner and justice secretary in the Conservative government until he was sacked by Theresa May when she became prime minister, has some advice for the prime minister in his Times column today (paywall).
I can understand why the world and her husband want Theresa May to give Donald Trump what for on women’s rights, attitudes to Muslims, waterboarding of terrorist suspects and other issues on which his words and attitudes enrage. But America is a democracy and it is not the job of the prime minister to act as the president’s Mary Poppins, correcting his manners in public. It is her job to secure the maximum benefit for the British people from this relationship.
As the first foreign leader invited to the White House, she has a precious opportunity to shape the new administration’s strategic posture and, with luck, avert present dangers and create opportunities.
This is from ITV’s Robert Peston.
What do you call mob of hacks outside Whitehouse waiting to see them? pic.twitter.com/7UMXzTeEWE
— Robert Peston (@Peston) January 27, 2017
Matt Kelly, who edits the anti-Brexit newspaper in the UK, the New European, thinks Theresa May is not making much of an impression in Washington.
skynews wall to wall Mrs May in Washington. fox news not a mention. that's the reality of the special relationship....
— Matt Kelly (@mk1969) January 27, 2017
But the broadcaster Piers Morgan, a friend of Donald Trump’s, thinks otherwise.
Great coup for Britain that theresa_may is 1st foreign leader invited into President Trump's White House.
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) January 27, 2017
Unpatriotic cynics pipe down.
Here is the US pool report on Trump and May in the Oval Office.
Pool was ushered into Oval Office at 12:16.
Potus and PM Theresa May were standing near chairs next to the fire place. In between them stood the newly returned Winston Churchill bust.
Potus was wearing his signature dark suit and Red tie. He also had an American flag pin on.
Potus moved a lamp so reporters had a better view of the bust. “Why don’t we move this?” he said.
He also said something like, this is the only shot you’ll see tomorrow.
“This is the original,” he said a couple times.
“It’s a great honor to have Winston Churchill back,” Potus said.
“It’s a great honor to be here,” PM May said in response.
They shook hands.
Bannon, Flynn, Kushner, Spicer were in Oval Office.
After a minute pool was ushered out.
Here are reporters waiting for the press conference.
It is a bit of a zoo half hour ahead of Trump May press con. looks like some of british press were still struggling to get entry 2 WHgrounds pic.twitter.com/J0frAr5Db0
— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) January 27, 2017
Last night Theresa May gave a speech to Republicans in Philadelphia. After hearing her speech Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota congressman, said he thought May could be Donald Trump’s “long-lost sister” because of the similarities in their outlook. As the Sun reports, Cramer told the Today programme:
As I watching her and listening to her, I thought ‘is this Donald Trump’s long-lost sister?
There was real similarities while at the same time, clearly a different take on certain global issues but at the same time, a great respect for nationalism and patriotism and certainly national security.
Donald Trump and Theresa May have been posing for photographs in the Oval Office, beside the bust of Winston Churchill that Trump has returned to the office.
Prime Minister Theresa May and President Donald Trump pose for photographs in the White House ahead of their meeting and press conference pic.twitter.com/k9IoMzsh0E
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) January 27, 2017
Trump says:
This is the original, folks, this is the original, in many ways. It’s a great honour to have Winston Churchill back.
When I first heard the clip I thought Trump was making a point about Churchill being the original great leader. But I think he was just talking about the bust being an original, not a replica. It is by Jacob Epstein.
May said thank you and that “we’re very pleased”. For those of you unfamiliar with the background to this, amongst rightwingers in the UK the decision of Barack Obama to remove a Churchill bust from the Oval Office (or not to keep it, when the office was refurbished after he took over from George W Bush), was sometimes presented as a sleight to national honour, leading Obama to have to explain at a press conference in London last year that actually he was a big Churchill fan and had a bust of him in his private quarters.
It is not clear who the “we” was that May was referring to. The former Ukip leader Nigel Farage and some UK newspapers welcomed Trump’s decision to restore the bust to the White House, but many Britons probably care very little about Trump’s office decor.
Updated
The British hacks have had difficulty getting into the White House. These are from BuzzFeed’s Jim Waterson and the Mail on Sunday’s Ned Donovan.
British press corp is locked outside the White House because our birthdates were submitted in UK format and secret service don't get it. 🇬🇧
— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) January 27, 2017
Those of us born after the 12th day of the month have been let through. This full military welcome is awaiting Theresa May at White House. pic.twitter.com/EncvMYGggH
— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) January 27, 2017
White House press officer just told me off on the phone for laughing when they told me about not knowing British date formats were different
— Ned Donovan (@Ned_Donovan) January 27, 2017
"Why is that funny? One person put their birthday as 01/08/[year], why would we be expected to think that means August 1st? Why?"
— Ned Donovan (@Ned_Donovan) January 27, 2017
Here is BuzzFeed’s Jim Waterson, who is with the British press pack travelling with the PM, on the White House’s name error.
Mentions of "special relationship" in Theresa May's speech: 8
— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) January 27, 2017
Number of times Theresa May's name was misspelled in White House briefing: 3
Theresa May has spoken to Donald Trump twice on the phone but, until about 10 minutes ago, they had never met.
That might help to explain why some White House staff are not particular familiar with her. As this story explains, a White House schedule could not even spell her name correctly.
Perhaps they were thinking of this Teresa May, who is also distinguished in her own field.
Sean Spicer, Donald Trump’s press secretary, has posted a picture on Twitter of Theresa May signing the White House visitor book.
The United Kingdom's Prime Minister @theresa_may becomes the first head of government to sign the White House book under @POTUS Trump pic.twitter.com/Q0PjQeTwJL
— Sean Spicer (@PressSec) January 27, 2017
Earlier today Theresa May visited the Arlington cemetery in Washington. This is what the Press Association filed about it.
On the morning of her keenly awaited meeting with President Donald Trump, Theresa May paid her respects to the military dead of the US at Arlington National Cemetery.
The prime minister laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at the Virginia cemetery, which holds the remains of unidentified US troops from the First and Second World Wars, as well as the Korean conflict.
Dressed in sombre black, the PM was greeted by troops representing all military units based in Washington, led by Major General Bradley Becker, commander of Joint Force Headquarters for the national capital region.
A cannon was fired 19 times as the prime minister’s convoy arrived at the cemetery and made its way to the memorial, which stands on a small hill looking down over serried ranks of gravestones to the monuments of Washington a few miles away across the Potomac River.
After a military band played the national anthems of the UK and US, the PM mounted the steps to lay a wreath of red poppies, bowing her head in respect as a single trumpeter sounded the Last Post.
More than 400,000 US troops killed in conflicts from the Civil War to the ongoing War on Terror are laid to rest at Arlington.
Among them are a number of British troops who died fighting alongside US forces.
Also at the cemetery are a memorial to the victims of the Lockerbie terror attack and the grave of assassinated US president John F Kennedy.
May also laid a wreath at the grave of Sir John Dill, the Field Marshal sent to Washington as Churchill’s personal representative during the Second World War.
Donald Trump will shortly be holding his first press conference as president. And it will be a joint number with the British prime minister, Theresa May, who has secured the distinction of becoming the first foreign leader to meet him in the White House since his inauguration last week. Whether or not that is to her credit is something that is a matter of intense debate in the UK.
Trump is deeply unpopular with British voters, even those who support the Conservatives, the Republicans’ sister party, and many of Trump’s policy positions are sharply at odds with those of the UK government. Temperamentally Trump is also very different to May, a vicar’s daughter noted for her propriety and her reserve. But, speaking to reporters on the plane on her flight to the US, she played down the idea that they might not get on. “Haven’t you ever noticed, sometimes opposites attract?” she said, rather surprisingly. What Mr May made of that remains a mystery.
Here is our preview story with more details.
May has just arrived at the White House. The joint press conference is due to take place at about 6pm UK time.
If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
Updated
