Trump, May to give joint press conference today

Washington: Donald Trump will give his first press conference as US President on Friday, in a joint appearance with visiting British Prime Minister Theresa May.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer indicated on Thursday that Trump would take questions from reporters after the pair meet at the White House.

Trump’s administration has taken a confrontational approach to the media, while at the same time the new Republican president uses frequent television appearances as a bully pulpit.

His only press conference after winning the election and before taking office was dominated by questions about alleged Russian interference in US politics -- and Trump’s gripes with individual reporters.

British Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday embraced US President Donald Trump as a friend and ally, but cautioned him not to turn his back on global institutions and long-established political values.

On her first visit to the United States as prime minister, May called the start of Trump’s term “a new era of American renewal” — but firmly rejected the president’s suggestion that torture might be acceptable, and rebuffed some of his foreign-policy views.

May flew to Philadelphia a day before she will hold talks with Trump at the White House and become the first foreign leader to meet the president since his inauguration.

May worked hard to get the invitation, and is seizing the opportunity to bolster the trans-Atlantic “special relationship” and work toward a US-UK free trade deal after Britain leaves the European Union.

She told a gathering of Republican lawmakers at their annual Congressional retreat that a Britain outside the EU and the U.S. under Trump can “lead together again” in the world, as they did when they set up the United Nations, NATO and other international organizations the new president has strongly criticized.

Throughout the more than half-hour of her speech, May declared sympathy for Trump’s world view, then reminded the gathered Republicans — and by extension the president — of the United States’ international obligations.

She also joined in Trump’s criticism of past U.S. foreign policy, saying “the days of Britain and America intervening in sovereign countries in an attempt to remake the world in our own image are over.”