Theresa May's Trump card turns off EU leaders at Malta summit

Theresa May's "special relationship" with Donald Trump failed to impress EU leaders at an informal summit in Valletta, Malta on Friday (3 February).

The British prime minister briefed her European counterparts about her White House meeting with the property tycoon, Trump's first face-to-face with a world leader since he took office in January.

But Trump appeared to be just as unpopular as the Brexit vote with the likes of France's Francois Hollande, who warned May that there was "no future with Trump if it is not a common position".

Lithuania President Dalia Grybauskaitė also rejected May's promise of a bridge between the Trump administration and Brussels. "I don't think there is a necessity for a bridge," she declared.

But May, who was accompanied by her new top diplomat to the EU Sir Tim Barrow, did win praise before the summit for getting Trump to say he was "100% supportive of Nato" following numerous critical remarks from the Republican about the military alliance.

A group of Nordic and Baltic state ambassadors sent a letter of thanks to the prime minister for securing the pledge from Trump, The Times Red Box reported.

May, who urged her fellow EU leaders to meet Nato's 2% of GDP defence target, also talked with German Chancellor Angela Merkel as the leaders walked through Valletta. The pair were greeted by cheers from tourists and locals.

However, a planned sit-down between May and Merkel was reportedly cancelled, and the prime minister will have to head home early from the summit as the other 27 leaders discuss Brexit.

The fly-by visit comes after European Council chief Donald Tusk described Trump as a threat to Europe.

"The change in Washington puts the European Union in a difficult situation; with the new administration seeming to put into question the last 70 years of American foreign policy," he wrote, in a letter to 27 EU leaders.

But Nigel Farage, the first European political leader to meet Trump after his shock November victory, urged MEPs to invite the US president to the EU Parliament.

"Perhaps what we need to do is to be a little bit more constructive. All of us here say we are democrats. Well, here's a chance to prove it: Let us invite President Trump to come here to this European Parliament," the Eurosceptic firebrand said.

"I'm sure as democrats you would all agree that we need to have an open dialogue with the newly-elected most powerful man in world. If you throw that rejection back in my face, then your prove yourselves to be the anti-democratic zealots that I always thought you were."

Farage made the speech as Labour MEP Seb Dance held a "he's lying to you" sign behind his back.