Trump summit with May to test relationship

British Prime Minister Theresa May has won the race to be the first foreign leader to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington. But her trip to the US capital is anything but a victory lap.

May's staff worked feverishly to secure the two-day trip, which includes a meeting with the president Friday at the White House.

British officials hope it will help cement the UK's place as a pre-eminent American ally and provide proof of what Britons - more often than Americans - call the trans-Atlantic "special relationship."

But May faces the challenge of persuading a president who has vowed to put "America first" of the benefits of free trade with Britain and the vital role of the 28-nation NATO military alliance.

And she must build a working relationship with a populist president whose protectionist outlook and loose way with facts have alarmed many European politicians, including some of May's own allies.

May insists she's up to the task of being America's steadfast but plain-speaking friend, telling British lawmakers on Wednesday that "I am not afraid to speak frankly to a president of the United States."

Her message in the US will include elements of gentle history lesson, as she urges the two nations to "lead together."

In a speech to Republican legislators in Philadelphia on Thursday, May plans to say that the trans-Atlantic relationship "made the modern world" and built the institutions that have underpinned the global order since the end of World War II.

Linking Britain's vote to leave the 28-nation European Union with the win of political outsider Trump, she'll say that "as you renew your nation just as we renew ours, we have the opportunity - indeed the responsibility - to renew the special relationship for this new age."

Trump has already pronounced Britain "very special!" in one of his tweets. He has also has restored to the Oval Office a bust of Britain's World War II Prime Minister Winston Churchill.