After an extraordinary interview with The Sun in which Trump criticised Theresa May’s handling of Brexit and tipped Cabinet turncoat Boris Johnson for Number 10, the Prime Minister could be forgiven for already feeling tired of her controversial guest.
However, Twitter users believe they have a solution, urging May to channel Hugh Grant’s prime minister character in Love Actually and hit back at Trump.
In a scene from the 2003 romcom, the PM breaks from diplomatic protocol to give Billy Bob Thornton's boorish US president a public dressing-down which many of Trump’s British detractors found spookily prescient today.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Grant warns that the “special relationship” has become a “bad relationship”, one “based on the president taking exactly what he wants, and casually ignoring all those things that really matter to Britain”.
"We may be a small country, but we’re a great one too,” he says, before listing iconic Britons from Shakespeare to The Beatles.
The fictional PM ends his inspiring speech with this warning: "A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend. And since bullies only respond to strength, from now onward I will be prepared to be much stronger - and the president should be prepared for that.”
For many, it was the perfect rallying cry against Trump, who has frequently been derided as a “bully” for his strongarm approach to diplomacy and readiness to insult allies and rivals alike.
As Love Actually started trending, BBC Three’s Twitter account even attempted a - distinctly dodgy - video mockup of what such a scene might look like:
Elsewhere, users enjoyed sharing their favourite signs from the Trump protests taking place in Blenheim Palace last night and in the capital today, ranging from witty jabs at the president’s supposed admiration of Winston Churchill:
To messages you might describe as “straight to the point”:
-
6 homes for entertainingFeature Featuring a heated greenhouse in Pennsylvania and a glamorous oasis in California
-
Obesity drugs: Will Trump’s plan lower costs?Feature Even $149 a month, the advertised price for a starting dose of a still-in-development GLP-1 pill on TrumpRx, will be too big a burden for the many Americans ‘struggling to afford groceries’
-
The ‘Kavanaugh stop’Feature Activists say a Supreme Court ruling has given federal agents a green light to racially profile Latinos
-
Affordability: Does Trump have an answer?Feature Trump ‘refuses to admit there is a problem’
-
Trump pivots on Epstein vote amid GOP defectionsSpeed Read The president said House Republicans should vote on a forced release of the Justice Department’s Jeffrey Epstein files
-
Is Marjorie Taylor Greene undergoing a political realignment?TALKING POINTS The MAGA firebrand made a name for herself in Congress as one of Trump’s most unapologetic supporters. One year into Trump’s second term, a shift is afoot.
-
How are these Epstein files so damaging to Trump?TODAY'S BIG QUESTION As Republicans and Democrats release dueling tranches of Epstein-related documents, the White House finds itself caught in a mess partially of its own making
-
Will California tax its billionaires?Talking Points A proposed one-time levy would shore up education and Medicaid
-
Catholic bishops rebuke Trump on immigrationSpeed Read ‘We feel compelled’ to ‘raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity,’ the bishops said
-
House releases Epstein emails referencing TrumpSpeed Read The emails suggest Trump knew more about Epstein’s sex trafficking of underage women than he has claimed
-
A free speech debate is raging over sign language at the White HouseTalking Points The administration has been accused of excluding deaf Americans from press briefings
