PHILADELPHIA — President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May promised to coordinate their respective nations’ efforts to fight “radical Islamic terrorism” at the GOP retreat in Philadelphia. The Trump-May relationship is already being compared to the relationship Ronald Reagan had with Margaret Thatcher during the cold war.
Trump praised his new Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, and CIA director Mike Pompeo, saying “with you in Congress to keep our country safe from the many threats we face today, that includes protecting Americans from radical Islamic terrorism.” (RELATED: NYT Editorial Board Horrified That Trump Wants To Fight ‘Radical Islamic Terrorism)
Prime Minister May concurred, stating in her remarks following Trump’s, “But across the world, ancient ethnic, religious and national rivalries – rivalries that had been frozen through the decades of the Cold War – returned.”
May continued, “New enemies of the West and our values – in particular in the form of Radical Islamists – have emerged. And countries with little tradition of democracy, liberty and human rights – notably China and Russia – have grown more assertive in world affairs.”
May also said in her remarks, “We must never cease,” as Churchill said, “to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man which are the joint inheritance of the English-speaking world and which through Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, and the English common law, find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence.”
“So it is my honor and my privilege to stand before you today in this great city of Philadelphia to proclaim them again, to join hands as we pick up that mantle of leadership once more, to renew our Special Relationship and to recommit ourselves to the responsibility of leadership in the modern world,” she added.
President Trump and Prime Minister May are expected to meet in the Oval Office Friday to discuss a post-Brexit trade deal with the U.S. as well as national security concerns facing both countries.