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Theresa May’s panic when Donald Trump took her hand

former President of the United States is a man who can be unpredictable as his four years in the White House have shown. But at the start of his tenure, not everyone had prepared for the character yet. Thus, the British Prime Minister Theresa May, who led the United Kingdom between 2016 and 2019, met Donald Trump a few days after the start of his mandate, in Washington DC, in 2017. The purpose of her meeting was, among others , to snatch from Donald Trump a declaration of support for NATO, reports The Guardian, which echoes a BBC documentary recounting the Trump years.

As the president and Theresa May walked through the White House, Donald Trump took her hand and patted it, an unexpected gesture that only lasted a few seconds. “He held her hand as he passed through the colonnades, which took us all by surprise and, in the end, took Theresa by surprise,” recalls Fiona McLeod Hill, who served as chief of staff in the Prime Minister. “She couldn’t really get her hand back so she was stuck… And the first thing she said was [par la suite] was “I have to call Philip [son mari, NDLR] just to let him know that I held the hand of another man, before it appeared in the media, ”“ abounds the counselor.

Donald Trump’s wrath

But before having her husband on the phone, Theresa May had to witness another diplomatically awkward moment. During lunch, the Prime Minister tried to bring the subject of the Russian president to the table, asking Donald Trump if he had spoken with Vladimir Putin. Donald Trump’s chief of staff intervened to indicate that the Russian president had called, but had not been passed to the US president. “At this point, Trump didn’t look orange but red,” recalls Fiona McLeod Hill. He began to rebuke his advisers. “You tell me that Vladimir Putin called the White House and you only tell me now during this lunch? Vladimir Putin is the only man in the world who can destroy the United States and I did not take his call, ”reports Thomas Shannon, then on Trump’s team.

Theresa May left her place as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to Boris Johnson in July 2019.


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