Davos 2018: May and Trump repair ‘special relationship’

Theresa May and Donald Trump held talks at the World Economic Forum today, offering the Prime Minister a chance to rekindle the strained “special relationship” following the cancellation of a visit by Trump to London.

Trump went to great lengths to dispel rumours of a rift between the UK and US, saying he and May have a mutual feeling of “liking each other a lot”.

“We have great respect for everything you’re doing, and we love your country. We think it’s truly good,” Trump told the Prime Minister, according to The Guardian.

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The UK and the UK are working on economic development, trade and military issues, Trump added.

Some commentators feared that May would struggle to be heard by the US president at all during their meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

“During formal phone calls between the two leaders, May finds it almost impossible to make headway and get her points across,” Bloomberg says. ”Trump totally dominates the discussion, leaving the Prime Minister with five or ten seconds to speak before he interrupts and launches into another monologue.”

White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster said yesterday that Trump was prioritising his hastily arranged meeting with the British leader, “because we do have a special relationship”.

Trump’s two-day Swiss blitz is an opportunity for him to promote his America First agenda to Davos’ globalists, Reuters says. But his mind may be elsewhere, following the revelation that the US president is to testify under oath about claims of Russian meddling in the US election.

Meanwhile, May will be pitching her post-Brexit strategy to billionaires such as Bill Gates, world leaders including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and chief executives from banks and private equity firms such as Blackstone who are considering relocating to Dublin, Frankfurt or the US.

The PM’s speech this afternoon focused on social media giants. She urged investors to pressure tech giants to respond more quickly to extremist content on social networks, the BBC reports.

“Investors can make a big difference here by ensuring trust and safety issues are being properly considered - and I urge them to do so,” May said.