Theresa May sticks up for Donald Trump and says she will share state secrets with US

Theresa May and Donald Trump during her two-day visit in January. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Theresa May and Donald Trump during her two-day visit in January. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Theresa May has made a big deal out of being the only person offering a “strong and stable” future for Britain ahead of the general election.

Today, she stuck up for a world leader who’s leadership is anything but: Donald Trump.

Mrs May has been criticised in the past for not appearing to stand up to the US President, and has now stated she has “confidence” in Mr Trump – and said Britain will continue to share state secrets with the US President.

In a press conference with Chancellor Philip Hammond in London, Mrs May said: “We have a very special relationship with the US. I was very pleased that when I went to the US shortly after Donald Trump’s inauguration, he was able to commit to NATO.

“We continue to work together and we have confidence in that relationship.

“We continue to work with the United States and continue to share intelligence with the United States as we do with others around the world because we are all working together to deal with the threats that we face.”

Mrs May’s answer was even more notable because, during the same press conference, she was very careful with how she described her reportedly strained relationship with her own Chancellor, Philip Hammond.

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Quizzed over whether she planned to sack Mr Hammond after the election, she pointedly refused to rule that out, instead stating that “we’ve worked together over the years for many years, longer than we could care to identify.

The PM with Philip Hammond earlier today (PA)
The PM with Philip Hammond earlier today (PA)

In February, it emerged that Mr Trump’s visit to the UK would have to be rescheduled until August at the earliest so it can be held while Parliament is in recess and MPs are not around to raise objections.

Mr Trump’s presidency has hit a new low in the past week.

President Donald Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to end the agency’s investigation into ties between former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russia, according to a source who has seen a memo written by Comey.

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The explosive new development on Tuesday followed a week of tumult at the White House afterTrump fired Comey and then discussed sensitive national security information about Islamic State with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The Comey memo, first reported by the New York Times, caused alarm on Capitol Hill and raised questions about whether Trump tried to interfere with a federal investigation.

The White House quickly denied the report, saying in a statement it was “not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation between the president and Mr. Comey.”

Comey wrote the memo after he met in the Oval Office with Trump, the day after the Republican president fired Flynn on Feb. 14 for misleading Vice President Mike Pence about the extent of his conversations last year with Russia’s ambassador, Sergei Kislyak.

“I hope you can let this go,” Trump told Comey, according to a source familiar with the contents of the memo.

Coming the day after charges that Trump disclosed sensitive information to the Russians last week, the new disclosure further rattled members of Congress.

“The memo is powerful evidence of obstruction of justice and certainly merits immediate and prompt investigation by an independent special prosecutor,” said Democratic U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal.

Republican U.S. Representative Jason Chaffetz, chairman of a House of Representatives oversight committee, said his committee “is going to get the Comey memo, if it exists. I need to see it sooner rather than later. I have my subpoena pen ready.”

Legal experts have taken a dim view of Trump’s comments, as quoted in the memo.

“For the president to tell the FBI to end a potential criminal investigation, that’s obstruction of justice,” said Erwin Chereminsky, a constitutional law professor and dean of University of California, Irvine School of Law. “This is what caused President Nixon to resign from office.”

A spokeswoman for the FBI declined to comment on the details of the memo.