When Trump visited this side of the pond, he slammed May’s strategy on Brexit, leading to revelations he’d told her to sue the EU (yes, really). Upon learning May got paid more than £100,000 to deliver speeches after being PM, Trump fulminated: “I’d pay £100,000 not to hear her talk!” Charming.
Obama and Brown exchange gifts
Exchanging presents with a friend is never a bad idea — unless the gifts differ dramatically in value. Barack Obama and Gordon Brown experienced that very plight in 2009 when the Labour prime minister got the brand-new U.S. president an ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of a Victorian anti-slave ship, a framed commission for HMS Resolute, and a first edition of the seven-volume biography of Winston Churchill by historian Martin Gilbert.
By contrast, the Obamas got the Browns a box set of 25 American DVDs including “Raging Bull,” “Psycho” and “The Grapes of Wrath” — after which the metaphors for Brown’s political predicament wrote themselves.
Their previous encounter wasn’t much better: After a brief press conference, Brown wasn’t invited to Camp David, and the traditional side-by-side photo op in front of the two nations’ flags was skipped altogether. Later that year Obama turned down no fewer than five requests from Downing Street for a bilateral meeting at the U.N. in New York. Eek.
Bush and Brown go round in circles
When Tony Blair was in Downing Street he pledged to stand shoulder to shoulder with George W. Bush. Brown, Blair’s successor, didn’t have quite the same flair. His opening line on meeting Bush at Camp David was: “Do you come here quite a bit?” followed by a playful spin on Golf Cart One, where the PM didn’t appear to be living his best life.
After Brown left office, reports emerged that Bush’s White House had had “grave doubts” about Brown’s suitability to become PM after a difficult meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about U.S. policy on aid and development in Africa.
