Will May regret Trump's UK visit?

World
Europe

It’s all over now, but you can’t help wondering whether UK Prime Minister Theresa May thinks the visit from Donald Trump to the UK proved to be a good idea in the end.

Inviting the President to the UK for a lavish State Visit at least made some sense when he was elected 18 months ago.

As it turned out, it has been an apparently slow slide to diplomatic disaster.

US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk across the tarmac after stepping off Air Force One as they arrive at London's Stansted Airport, July 12, 2018. /AP Photo

The argument in favor went like this: Britain would be able to parade its so-called ‘Special Relationship’ with the US and possibly even garner a few Brownie points with the leader of the world’s largest economy.

As a bonus it could possibly help out with trade deals when Britain launches itself after Brexit and life outside the European Union.

However, if a week’s a long time in politics, 18 months is an unending age and the UK has just learned how times have changed in the last year-and-a-half.

Relations between the US and the UK deteriorated and the vaulted ambition of a State Visit was quietly downgraded to a brief ‘working visit.’

US President Donald Trump gestures while speaking during his meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May at Chequers, in Buckinghamshire, July 13, 2018. /AP Photo

The President would be coming, but his stopover would be shoehorned in between Nato, a round of golf in Scotland and a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Surely it couldn’t get worse? Yes it could and it did.

A rainbow coalition of leftwing pressure groups quickly organized – even making a six meter Trump baby blimp to float over the UK capital during his visit.

Before flying to Europe, Trump himself added to the febrile climate by describing British politics under Theresa May as being in turmoil.

As Trump was lauded on his arrival the strains on Anglo-American ties were tightened further.

May made a speech talking of the opportunities offered by a Britain freed from the restraints of the European Union. The US and the UK, she said, could celebrate with a bonfire of Brussels red tape.

US President Donald Trump is greeted by British Prime Minister Theresa May at Chequers, in Buckinghamshire, July 13, 2018. /AP Photo

That was before an article published in Britain’s fiercely anti-EU newspaper, the Sun.

In it, Trump said the policies of his host had wrecked Brexit and the chances of a trade deal with the US.

His words were widely regarded as an extraordinary act of diplomatic savagery.

However, fast forward to talks at Chequers, the country house of UK’s prime minister, and President Trump revealed – despite the recordings - it was all fake news. Whatever the UK wanted to do on Brexit was fine with him and Theresa May was his new best friend:“Last night, we really I was very embarrassed for the rest of the table,” he said, “but we just talked about lots of different problems and solutions to those problems and it was a great evening.”

In terms of damage limitation, that was as good as it was going to get for Theresa May, as she struggles to pitch her Brexit blueprint to Eurosceptics in her own party.

As all that was going on, the streets of the UK’s cities were teeming with protesters, angry that the US President should be let in the country at all. They were joined in central London by the leader of the UK Parliament’s official Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn.

Trafalgar Square is filled with protesters against the UK visit of US President Donald Trump holding up placards as they take part in a march and rally in London on July 13, 2018. /VCG Photo

Views of the visit in some newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic have been equally unflattering.

London’s liberal Guardian newspaper described it as the visit from hell, saying Theresa May ought to have grasped that this US President was an enemy of stability in Europe.

The Washington Post asked whether Trump was trying to bring down Britain’s government, which was already teetering as a result of Brexit negotiations that are not going well.

Trump had breached every known custom of diplomacy, said the Post.

In financial terms, Scotland Yard put the cost of the security operation for Trump’s visit at $15 million dollars. The cost in political capital for the UK Prime Minister must be many times that sum.

The question being asked in Britain is whether it was money well spent? The answer is, of course, well it did seem a good idea at the time.