With Theresa May due to become the new incumbent of 10 Downing Street later today, politicians the world over have a new leader to scope out.
As Theresa May’s former Home Secretary role was domestic, many will have had scant interaction with her – but both US presidential candidates have history, though it pulls in different directions.
Donald Trump – as is often the case – managed to mortally offend May from the US campaign trail – while she and Hillary Clinton have some record of working together.
Trump stirred the ire of May when he claimed that parts of London were ‘no-go areas’ for police officers, whom he claimed were afraid of the local Muslim population.
May, who was responsible for the police, said he was talking “nonsense” and echoed David Cameron’s condemnation of him as “divisive, unhelpful and wrong”.
Given that Cameron’s remarks convinced Trump the two were “not going to have a very good relationship”, it seems the same could now apply to May.
By contrast, her relationship with Hillary Clinton, though little remarked-upon of late, is cordial at least.
She met Clinton in her tenure as Secretary of State, with the two photographed together at a 2012 summit in London.
The two collaborated to try to stop terrorists heading to terror hotspots – then Somalia.
Ironically the two were united by opposing extremism – the very issue confounding any fledgling May-Trump union.
However, there is some succour for Trump, who has also had his rights defended by her, albeit reluctantly.
When more than half a million Britons signed a petition to have Trump banned from entering the UK, Theresa May, as Home Secretary, was the only person with the power to make it happen.
When the proposed ban was dominating the news agenda in January, her department poured cold water on the idea of a ban, emphasising that powers to block entry to the country are “not used lightly”.
If that’s not basis for a blossoming friendship, then what is?