ANALYSIS: Donald Trump turns on the charm, but the damage to Theresa May is already done
3 min read
Well you didn't really expect him to be consistent, did you?
This morning, the world woke up to Donald Trump warning in The Sun that Theresa May's plans to maintain close ties with the EU after Brexit had "probably killed" any hope of a UK-US trade deal.
What's more, he said the Prime Minister had ignored his advice - a mortal sin in Trumpland - while deciding her favoured course of action.
"We are cracking down right now on the European Union because they have not treated the United States fairly on trading," the President said. "No, if they do that I would say that that would probably end a major trade relationship with the United States."
That couldn't be clearer, right? Wrong. Fast forward a few hours and Trump was singing a completely different tune.
Standing alongside May at a press conference after the pair held talks at Chequers, Trump insisted that a trade deal was back on - and lavished praise on the woman whose negotiating skills he had decisively dumped on in The Sun.
"She's a very smart, very tough, very capable person and I would much rather have her as my friend than my enemy," he said.
But it was like a small child being caught with their hands in the biscuit tin trying to plead for clemency by giving their mum a cuddle: unconvincing and unsuccessful in distracting attention from the original offence.
Because make no bones about it, when Trump's first visit to the UK as President is recalled in the future, it will not be his warm words in the grounds of Chequers which will be remembered, it will be the ill-mannered warnings contained in his Sun interview.
And the reason they struck home is because they ring true. The soft Brexit May is pursuing, with its common rule book and free trade area for goods, will hamper Britain's ability to strike free trade deals with the US and other countries.
Trump knows this and the Prime Minister does too, despite her protestations this afternoon. It is why Tory Brexiteers are furious and threatening to vote it down next week.
FAKE NEWS
A mention should also be made about Trump's claim that The Sun scoop was "fake news" - a charge he levels at any media outlet printing something which makes life uncomfortable for him, regardless of its veracity.
He said the paper had failed to report his praise of the Prime Minister. A quick skim through the copy quickly revealed that accusation was untrue. Or fake news, to coin a phrase.
That aside, Downing Street will no doubt be hugely relieved that the press conference was not an unmitigated disaster. It was bizarre, electrifying and, at times, frankly surreal, but it was not a car crash for the Prime Minister.
But it doesn't really matter, The damage had already been done.
