Britain’s leader at last aired her differences with President Donald Trump over his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, nearly two weeks after vowing to confront him over the controversial move.
The phone call on Tuesday was the first time Trump and Prime Minister Theresa May have spoken since a pair of disputes forced a wedge between the transatlantic allies.
It was their first conversation since a spat erupted over Trump’s retweets of anti-Muslim videos from a British ultra-nationalist group, which enraged Britons and prompted a rare public rebuke from May.
The retweets didn’t arise on the call, according to a person familiar with the leaders’ talk. But the Jerusalem issue did.
“They discussed the different positions we took on the recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and agreed on the importance of the US bringing forward new proposals for peace and the international community supporting these efforts,” said a Downing Street spokesman.
Trump announced at the beginning of December that the US would break with longstanding practice and recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Both Israelis and Palestinians claim the city, and the US and other countries have avoided taking a position on the matter.
The Prime Minister declared at the time of Trump’s announcement that she planned to raise the matter with her American counterpart. But the phone call didn’t materialize until 13 days later, even though Trump called a host of foreign leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, to discuss the issue.
The White House’s description of the phone call did not mention the Jerusalem issue. Instead, it said Trump and May “discussed next steps in forging peace in the Middle East” along with discussions of Yemen and Brexit.
Trump and May have carried out an unusually contentious relationship in the months since the British leader rushed to Washington to become the first foreign leader to visit the White House after Trump assumed office.
All seemed well back then, when May and Trump were photographed clasping hands as they walked along the Rose Garden toward a joint press conference.
But differences in style and temperament — she a constrained vicar’s daughter, he a brash real estate developer — have intruded at times on the storied special relationship.
In July, she was forced to defend London Mayor Sadiq Khan from Trump’s Twitter haranguing following a terror attack in central London.
And last month, she said Trump was “wrong” to retweet the messages from Britain First, an extreme right-wing group who posted misleading videos depicting Muslims negatively.
Instead of letting May’s mild rebuke stand, Trump fired back, initially using the wrong handle to identify his British counterpart: “Don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!”
The back-and-forth exasperated British government officials, who said privately the story emerged from seemingly nowhere and required May — who had been traveling in Jordan — to respond.
“You’re looking out on a cloudless clear blue day — and then this comes out of nowhere,” said one person close to the Prime Minister’s office. “It threw the whole news agenda off. This was a problem that didn’t need to be there.”
May didn’t expect to launch a Twitter fight, the person said. But instead she found herself mired in an online tiff with the US President, who later re-sent his message with the correct handle.
The dust-up was not expected to cause substantial harm to the US-UK relationship — “He likes the make-up almost as much as he likes the break-up,” the person said — but it did fuel further calls for Trump’s pending visit to London to be canceled.
May initially extended the invitation from Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to the White House in January. The trip was expected to occur in the first months of the administration, American and British officials said privately, but scheduling conflicts and May’s electoral woes delayed the trip.
There was never an official date set for the trip after May’s invitation, a move that was heavily criticized in the UK.
After Trump’s three anti-Muslim retweets, the calls loudened for the trip to be scrapped. If and when Trump does arrive in the British capital, large protests are all but guaranteed — one of the reasons officials say the trip hasn’t occurred yet.
Officials familiar with the plans say a visit to London could occur around the opening of a new $1 billion US embassy south of the River Thames, perhaps at the end of February.
But neither the White House nor Downing Street said a possible trip came up during the leaders’ call on Tuesday.
Later, the White House said it would announce details of Trump’s visit to London “soon.”
“That invitation has been extended and accepted and we are working with them to finalize the details, which we expect to announce soon,” press secretary Sarah Sanders said.
