I
kept the right ones out
And
let the wrong ones in
Had
an angel of mercy to see me through all my sins
Everybody understood that PM Theresa May stood in the
starting blocks to visit the American president Donald Trump, almost
immediately after his inauguration. There was hardly another option than to
become even better friends with the United States, if the UK did
not want to sink into economic oblivion.
Where the special relationship had traditionally been very
important to the eyes of the United Kingdom, it became paramount when the UK
decided to go its own way and leave the European Union.
The negotiation process with the EU – as a consequence
of the hard Brexit that Theresa May advocated – would be long and painful and
May was to expect hardly one inch of leeway during the whole process. And when
finished eventually, this would only be the beginning of an even longer and
more painful process of negotiating bilateral agreements with a huge number of
countries, that earlier had business relations with the EU as a whole.
This whole negotiating process might take a decade and will
be a long and winding road, with no guarantees in the end. It could even mean
that the UK could end up in a worse position than at the start of the
negotiations.
So even though PM May was not yet allowed to sign a
deal with the American president – the UK is still a member of the EU at this
moment – it would be a darn good feeling for her to leave the US with a letter
of intent and a few rockhard promises regarding trade agreements, in the best
interests of both countries.
Therefore standing at the stairs of the White House
would be a huge ego boost for Theresa May and it might even lend some street
credibility to Donald Trump, as he was off for a very shaky start in which he
offended almost everybody and their sister, except for his “friend” Vladimir
Vladimirovich Putin.
But May was soon to find out that her glorious pose at
the White House, holding hands with President Trump, was a Pyrrhic Victory and
would actually lead her away from the United Kingdom’s goal of wanting to be
taken serious as an economic powerhouse after the Brexit.
Hardly 24 hours after this glorious event, President Trump
by executive order deployed a ban against travellers from seven countries who
wanted to enter the USA: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen. In
vernicular this ban was called the Muslim Ban. And this ban was valid for all
travellers coming from these countries and even for people born in one of these
countries, irrespective of the fact whether they carried a visa and a greencard
or not.
On top of that, this fate also struck people with a
double passport, who carried the second one from a country not present on this
list. It did not matter: they did not get in the country. Period.
And even though this ban was watered down slightly the
next day, when a justice of the Supreme Court stated that people with a valid Green
Card and a visa could not be refused access to the United States, the damage had
already been done for Trump and May. Especially, when thousands and thousands of
alienated and furious American citizens in cities with large airports scurried
to the terminals to protest and express their outrage about this Muslim Ban action.
An action that damaged thousands of travellers from one of these countries and
made them (temporary) prisoners of the terminal on the airport where they
landed, while others were not even allowed to enter the plane in their home
countries.
Perhaps the most surprising thing about this Muslim Ban
were the countries NOT on this list of banned countries: Saudi Arabia, Egypt
and the United Arab Emirates, among others.
Especially Saudi-Arabia was undoubtedly the biggest “perpetrator”
in sheer numbers of hijackers participating in the events during 9/11 and also
the United Arab Emirates has allegedly a far from clean sheet, with respect to
sponsoring of and participating in terrorism. Mudslingers stated that these voids
on the list were caused by the fact that Trump owned massive commercial real
estate participations in those countries and did not want to offend his hosts overthere.
For PM Theresa May the sh*t started to really hit the
fan, when British citizens found out that under the new circumstances the
British MP Nadhim Zahawi, who was born in Iraqi capital Baghdad, would
not be granted access to the United States anymore for the duration of this ban.
Her unemotional reaction to this ban – in order not to offend Trump directly after
her visit– outraged her countrymen even more.
And soon a new opportunity for British outrage will
occur, as PM May did not come empty-handed to her new, political ‘best friend
forever’ in the United States.
She carried an invitation for an official state visit of
President Trump to the United Kingdom. And reputedly this state visit contained
the ‘Full Monty’ in British hospitality, in the form of President Trump visiting
the Royal Palace, having a guided tour through London in the royal stagecoach
and playing golf on the royal golf links. And probably dozens of other
privileges, reserved for only the most important visitors to the country.
Of course President Donald Trump was more than willing
to visit the United Kingdom, but – “by the way, Prime Minister” – he was
adamantly against meeting Prince Charles.
The prince is not only a long-term environmentalist and
deeply involved in the battle against climate change, for which President Trump
does not give one rat’s behind, but he is also gifted with a very effective ‘royal
bluntness’ that bows for nobody and leaves no important subject untouched, as Chinese
president Xi Jinping can confirm first hand.
Meeting Queen Elisabeth and the Princes William and
Harry? No problem. But Charles? Forget it!
And now PM Theresa May comes into a perfect storm.
She must sweet-talk to a rude and unfriendly President,
who made a ‘historical event’ of his first week after the inauguration, by
desecrating more people than probably any president before him, including
Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. A person whom she probably (?) dislikes and
who is hated by a substantial share of her own people for being the rude, angry
and xenophobe person that he is. And she does so, almost continuously standing
in the cross-fire of Scottish PM Nicola Sturgeon, who is absolutely not pleased
that Theresa May is going for the hard Brexit and who on top of that blames May
for her weak conduct against the Muslim Ban of late.
Besides that Theresa May must beg Donald Trump for
mercy, with respect to a future trade and partnership deal between the United
States and the United Kingdom, after she finished the painstaking negotiations
with the European Union upon the exit criteria.
And to make things even worse: Chancellor Angela Merkel
of Germany almost immediately took a firm and crystalclear stance against the
Muslim Ban by President Trump and was hailed and praised for that. Not only by
other Europeans, but even by May’s own countrymen, who saw in Merkel’s
appearance the backbone that Theresa May so dearly lacked in their eyes.
Of course it is solely to the British to decide whether
May indeed ‘kept the right ones out and let the wrong ones in’ or that they
still stand firmly behind her and the political choices she made.
However, few people will deny that a. President Trump
made an absolute disaster of his first week as president and that b. Theresa May
had just left him, when he deployed his despised and unfair Muslim Ban.
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