No sooner had the Prime Minister left Washington, DC and landed in Turkey than she was given a stark reminder of the challenges that Britain will continue to face in dealing with Donald Trump’s White House. After her summit with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, Theresa May no doubt expected to field difficult questions about the costs of cosying up to a Turkish regime that has been engaged in a concerted campaign to undermine its citizens’ civil rights. Yet it was the reflux from an otherwise successful visit to the US that gurgled up again.
Now, Trump’s planned visit to the UK this year has been transformed from a deft touch of diplomacy – wrapping the White House visit in a neat bow with a promise of red carpet – into a serious management problem on the horizon and a lightning rod for discontent.
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