Did Theresa May tame Donald Trump?

Did Theresa May tame Donald Trump or did we just learn that Donald Trump can do “restrained.” It wasn’t obviously part of his repertoire in the first week in office. Executive orders fired off, tweets spewing out, and a blizzard of what the US newspapers are getting into an early rhythm of calling, without qualification, “lies.” Then today, for 30 minutes, he did the stuff world leaders are meant to do: no content with warm delivery.

He emphasised how his views on torture weren’t the Secretary of Defense’s and he referred to the Secretary of Defense.

On NATO, Mrs May pointedly repeated the 100% support for NATO which she feels she’s heard from the President in private. Huddled masses in the Baltic Republics waiting to hear an affirmation of NATO’s central articles of faith heard a muttered “sure” or “fine” back from Trump. He could have said “nope.”

On Russia, Mrs May repeated her commitment to the sanctions that the UK for years tried to help the US coordinate with the EU. Mr Trump nodded but was presumably just acknowledging that she was repeating her position.

When Theresa May told the room that The Queen had invited the President to the UK the President looked down at his team, Steve Bannan and his son in law Jared Kushner on the front row with the chuffed look of a man who’d secured the political equivalent of some tasty real estate. He did a similar look when Theresa May praised his “stunning victory.”

That was her biggest sacrifice of dignity. Maybe she told herself that in conscience it was something that had stunned people. Laura Kuensberg for the BBC asked a question on behalf of the millions shocked and appalled rather than simply stunned. The President was a little taken aback by the directness of the question. He’d spent yesterday being gently stroked by a Fox reporter in the Oval Office in what looked like an excerpt from an interiors programme.

Mrs May will come in for flack from some around the world and at home for being a lap dog bounding to the US President’s call. Her supporters will say the point of the US/UK partnership is to be candid friends and that today proved she can be a restraint on the President.

The truth is, one week into his Presidency, we can’t know if he was showing us a side that conceals or, in time, supplants the brash, impulsive and often angry personality which the world is trying to come to terms with. One week to the day since he took office, we wait and watch.