'there goes that' – trump claims bbc question ends us-uk relationship

With President Trump and Theresa May holding a joint White House press conference to mark the Prime Minister’s visit to Washington, the pair welcomed questions from the UK’s travelling press

corps. The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg was offered a chance to question the two leaders and decided to challenge the American on some of his more controversial campaign rhetoric. The political

editor said: “Prime Minister you’ve talked about where you agree, but you also said you would be frank where you don’t agree with the President. Can you tell us where in your talks that you

did disagree and do you think the President listened to what you did have to say?” Kuenssberg added: “Mr President you have said before that torture works, you have praised Russia, you have

said you want to ban some Muslims for coming to America, you have suggested there should be punishment for abortion. “For many people in Britain those sound like alarming beliefs – what do

you say to our viewers at home, who are worried about some of your views and worried about you becoming the leader of the free world?” Pointing towards Mrs May, President Trump then jests:

“This was your choice of a question? TRUMP: I CALL THE EU A CONSORTIUM “There goes that relationship.”  Which leaves the press conference attendees in fits of laughter as the Prime Minister

is given her chance to answer, where she confirmed the pair had listened to each other during their White House talks. The Prime Minister responded: “On the issue that you raised with me

Laura, can I confirm that I’ve been listening to the President and the President has been listening to me.  GETTY Mrs May became the first foreign leader to visit President Trump at the

White House “That is the point of having a conversation and a dialogue. We have been discussing a number of topics – we will carry on after this press conference. “There will be times when

we disagree, the point of the special relationship is that we are able to have that open and frank discussion." President Trump used his response to rebuke claims that he is needlessly

in favour of torture, he added: “I don’t necessarily agree but he [Secretary of Defence James Mattis] is an expert and highly respected. “I am going to rely on him, I happen to feel it does

work – I have been open about that for a long period of time – but I am going with our leaders.” The American also used the press conference to slam the European Union as a slow-moving,

over-bureaucratic body that stifles trade, saying he hopes to work with Mrs May to thrash out a landmark post-Brexit deal. President Trump said Brexit was a “sign of things to come” and

“Brexit is going to be a wonderful thing for Britain”. He added: “You will have your own identity and you will be able to negotiate your own trade deals. Getting approvals from the group of

European nations, the consortium as I called it, was very, very tough.”