The Tory Party's Trump Conundrum

With the US election coming up, Sophie Church explores how the Conservatives are approaching the possibility of Trump’s return to power.

Theresa May’s aides told reporters she aimed to be Margaret Thatcher to Donald Trump’s Ronald Reagan as she flew to Washington to claim the honour of being the first foreign leader to visit his White House in 2017.

It didn’t turn out that way; their relationship was never better than awkward. The golden era of transatlantic conservatism, like a fading photograph, grows ever older. Indeed, relations between the Republican and Conservative parties have rarely been less close.

The position of Trump’s British handmaiden has, after all, been taken. Nigel Farage and the former US president share a genius for modern internet-powered campaigning, as well as a set of views, including how to deal with Vladimir Putin, that make many Conservatives uneasy.

So how do Tories deal with a Trump second term – and what lessons should they take if instead he falls short, meaning that by 2028 the Republicans will have been in the White House for just four of the previous 16 years?

Conservatives are trying to keep lines of communication open with Trump’s Republicans with the election just months away. In an intervention that surprised some of his colleagues, Robert Jenrick, alone among the Tory candidates, said he wants Trump to win.

Though Jenrick has never met Trump, he maintains close links with Elbridge Colby, who many predict will be Trump’s national security advisor should he return to the White House. The pair first met in Washington this February.

Colby made headlines for criticising former foreign secretary Lord Cameron’s “wildly incoherent” approach to defence. However, he was impressed by current Foreign