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Theresa May Lays Wreath at Arlington National Cemetary; Hollande, Merkel Warn of Populist Forces in Europe; Mexico Cancels Meeting with Trump. 8:00a-9:00a ET

Aired January 27, 2017 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[08:00:12] ROBYN CURNOW, HOST: I'm Robyn Curnow at CNN Center, welcome to News Stream. The U.S. president is set to meet the British prime minister

and speak to Russia's leader, but a meeting with Mexico's president is off as a fight over the border wall continues.

Also, Francois Hollande says the Trump administration poses a challenge for Europe as the

leaders of France and Germany call for Europe to unite.

Donald Trump is taking his place on the world stage, and he's sending a signal that it won't be business as usual. He welcomes British Prime

Minister Theresa May a short time from now. And of course, trade will be front and center of those talks.

And then on Saturday, a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled. Mr. Trump has pushed for closer ties with Moscow.

But relations with Mexico are headed south. The Mexican president has called off a meeting with Mr. Trump over that proposed border wall.

Now, as for Theresa May, she told U.S. Republican lawmakers on Thursday that the U.S.-British bond must endure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THERESA MAY, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: It is in our interests, those of Britain and America together, to stand strong together to defend our

values, our interests, and the very ideas in and we believe. This cannot mean a return to the failed policies of the past. The days of Britain and

America intervening in sovereign countries in an attempt to remake the world in our own image are over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: Well, Theresa May faces a balancing act as she pushes for a British-American trade agreement without alienating the European Union

Diana Magnay explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Just one week on the job, and President Trump is already promising a complete reversal of U.S. trade

policy.

TRUMP: Great thing for the American worker, what we just did.

MAGNAY: Protectionism, his guiding mantra: the recovery of American jobs, a complete shakeup of more than half a century's efforts to liberalize

global trade and to facilitate the movement of goods between states and trading blocs.

TRUMP: It's going to be only America first, America first.

MAGNAY: But on Friday, he'll meet with Britain's Theresa May who's looking to refashion the

special relationship now she's taking bring out of the EU. So, how will America first marry up with her vision of a global Britain?

MAY: We want to get out into the wider world, to trade and do business all around the globe.

MAGNAY: Bear in mind that Theresa May can't sign any new trade deals until Britain leaves

the EU. And she needs to keep the EU on side to strike the best Brexit deal possible. That means the talk on trade with the U.S. will likely be

vague at best.

IAN MITCHELL, SENIOR FELLOW, CENTER FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT: I guess the government is thinking from the perspective of introducing new frictions

with the EU. It will be helpful if it could reduce the frictions with the U.S. and other countries. And I guess that's why the U.S. has emerged as

an early priority in discussions.

MAGNAY: Frictions like, say, the trade in pharmaceuticals. They're the UK's biggest export to the U.S., worth $9.7 billion in 2015. But President

Trump has his own thoughts on drugs, and he wants them home made.

TRUMP: We have to get our drug industry coming back. Our drug industry has been disastrous.

MAGNAY: So where will that leave Theresa May, torn between the U.S. on the one side and the EU on the other. Future exports in limbo as the global

trading juggernaut shifts gears.

Proximity matters less than it used to, but it still matters. The EU is Britain's closest market, and it will likely remain its most important

market, however the Brexit negotiations go. Any trade deal with the U.S. will take a long time to negotiate, at least two or three years after

Britain Brexits. So however much President Trump says would like a deal to happen quickly, unless he wins a second term, he may not be around to see

it through.

Diana Mangay, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: And as Diana was saying there, I mean, Britain is walking a fine line, pushing

for trade with the U.S. while trying to honor Britain's obligations -- current obligations to the European

Union. All the while, President Trump begins to lay out a new era of American isolationism.

Well, let's talk about all of this with our Nic Robertson. He's in Washington. And he joins me now. And what is certainly going to be

interesting about this meeting is any chemistry or connection between these two.

The New York Times calls them the odd couple.

[08:05:11] NIC ROBERTRSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, and it was very interesting, the sort of biggest applause that Theresa May got at

the Republican retreat yesterday was when she invoked the memory of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher and that special relationship that they had,

which was a bond that certainly had some very serious friendship.

And where they didn't always see eye to eye, where Margaret Thatcher could be expected to

put Britain's point of view toward the United States toward President Reagan. It's not clear if Theresa May and President Trump can really have

this kind of relationship. I mean, she joked on the plane, on the way over -- on the way over here with journalists that sometimes opposites attract.

What we heard her clearly do is align herself, align Britain more closely with Republican values, with Republican values with Republican views

because she is turning towards the United States. We've heard her, as she was saying before, the reaction from French President Francois Hollande

when he meeting with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel concerns about what Britain's

turn towards the United States means. And we've heard Theresa May very clearly sort of put behind past relationship and Tony Blair's vision of

liberal interventionism.

That's now part of a history, you have Britain -- as the United States has already said, and the Republicans made very clear, they're not -- they are

not interested in intervening, overseas for the point of nation building, only where national interests are at stake.

So, Theresa May is very clearly aligning herself with the U.S. and that's because she sees that she wants something. And the thing that she wants,

as we've talked about is, is the trade. How that conversation goes on behind the closed doors at the White House today isn't clear, but really

what we're seeing here is Theresa May very clearly, very publicly, orienting herself with the current views, if not a President Trump,

certainly of the Republicans.

CURNOW: Yeah, and as you rightly say, I mean, Tony Blair was ridiculed as being George Bush's poodle in those days. She's got to be careful that

that kind of caricature doesn't endure, but we also know, and I saw some from CNN reporting that before he departed office, President Barack Obama

actually encouraged Theresa May to form a close relationship with Donald Trump.

I mean, that is in her national interest, but also many world leaders are going to be watching to see how this goes.

ROBERTSON: Absolutely. And part of what President Obama appears to have tasked Theresa

May with, if you will, and she will have done this from her own view, whether or not she's been influenced by President Obama here -- and one

can only imagine if President Trump thinks that Theresa May is coming to meet him because President Obama sent her, that's

really not a terribly good foot to set the meeting off on.

She has talked about Britain's own national interest. But what she's also talked about is the need to keep the institutions that the United States

and Britain worked so hard together to build -- things like NATO, things like the UN, the World Bank, these sorts of institutions

-- she said they might need overhauling. They -- we shouldn't be discarding them.

So in that way, she's sort of trying to be a bridge between Europe and the United States. She's trying to hear -- to put forward the views that

Britain holds strongly, that they're concerned that Donald Trump may want to ditch as he puts America first.

She was appealing to the -- more broadly to the Republicans yesterday. And her message may resonate more strongly with them than with President Trump.

But that was one of the reasons why she was so ready and happy to go and talk to -- the Republican retreat.

But she does have a lot at stake here. I mean, the political capital that Tony Blair lost because of his backing of President Bush to go into the war

in Iraq is something that he paid a high -- very, very high political price,still continues to pay.

So Theresa May very aware that this is a fine line for her to walk.

And she's exposing herself, as we're seeing, to criticisms back home in the UK and from Europe. So she's putting a lot on the line here to get this

right.

CURNOW: And again, back to that Obama suggestion to form a close relationship. I mean, is there any sense that someone like Theresa May or

even other western leaders could influence Donald Trump, have some sort of moderating effect on some of his more extreme unpredictability?

I mean, is there a sense that they can do business with him?

ROBERTSON: When she got on the plane to fly here on Thursday, she was expecting the next foreign leader to follow her through the doors at the

White House would be the Mexican president. When she got off the plane, she will have been presented with a situation whereby that had all changed,

and the subtext of that message would have been in negotiating and talking with President Trump. It appears, in some circumstance at least, it can be

my way or the highway. So, if it -- how much she thinks she can influence him.

And of course this was, you know, this is where history and politics have judged Tony Blair's relationship with President Bush to be flawed, because

he thought he could convince President Bush to sort of go a second round with the UN in advance of the intervention and the invasion in Iraq and he

wasn't able to do that. And that's where he lost his political gamble.

Theresa May will know all that. She's a very cautious person. She likes to know the facts before she gets involved, before she makes her decision.

She's made very clear now what her decision is. But again I think it's very, very hard to judge. We don't know how the chemistry will go behind

the closed doors.

But I think she's going to go into that knowing what's happened in the past other British leaders. And to be very cautious about in a way angering

somebody who in many ways she's going to from an extreme point of weakness asking to get a better trade deal with, you know, President Trump.

She is not going to want to cross him. So what lessons will she have taken from the incident yesterday where the Mexican president says OK I'm not

coming.

CURNOW: Yeah, she certainly is unlikely to get involved in any Twitter spat or Twitter diplomacy. I think she's certainly one of the people who

are going to will want to do this the old-fashioned way -- good old diplomacy.

Thanks so much. Nic Robertson who is keeping an eye on all of that that's unfolding throughout the day there in Washington. And we'll check back in

with you a little bit later. Thanks, Nic.

Now, while Mr. Trump welcomes the British prime minister to the White House, he's in a growing feud with Mexico's president, as Nic was

mentioned, over a planned border wall.

Sara Murray joins me now live from Washington as well for more on this. So, many are asking what are the consequences of this spat?

SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that is something that remains to be seen. And I was actually just speaking to Kellyanne Conway who is, of

course, a senior adviser to Donald Trump who essentially is saying this is not the entire relationship falling apart, this is just one meeting falling

apart. It remains to be seen if that is true, especially at a time when tensions are so thin between the two countries.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump triggering a diplomatic show down with Mexico in his first week in office.

TRUMP: I'm talking about a real wall. I'm talking about a wall that's got to be, like, serious.

MURRAY: The feud escalating quickly after the president threatened to cancel next week's meeting with Mexico's president if they won't pay for

his border wall. Within hours, Enrique Pena Nieto tweeting back that he told the White House that he is not coming. Trump later casting the

cancellation as a mutual decision.

TRUMP: Unless Mexico is going to treat the United States fairly with respect such a meeting would be fruitless.

MURRAY: Adding to the tension, the White House began floating a 20 percent tax on imports from Mexico.

SEAN SPICER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: By doing it that way we can do $10 billion a year and easily pay for the wall.

MURRAY: Only to walk it back two hours later, saying it's just one idea that could finance the wall.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are things that go beyond negotiations.

MURRAY: Mexico's foreign minister dismissing such a plan, pointing out the import tax would ultimately be passed onto American consumers.

Many economists agree, citing the $531 billion in goods traded between the countries in 2015, making Mexico America's third largest trading partner.

The suddenly stormy relationship between allies caps off Trump's chaotic first week in office. The president signing a flurry of executive orders to

fulfill a number of his controversial campaign promises, but the White House also delayed additional immigration actions, as well as Trump's order

to investigate his false claims of widespread voter fraud. This as the Trump administration's feud with the media isn't getting better.

TRUMP: These are very hostile people. These are very angry people.

MURRAY: In a rare interview with "The New York Times," the president's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, labels the media "the opposition party,"

saying the press should "keep its mouth shut."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY: Now, in addition to this busy diplomatic visit with Theresa May today, Donald Trump has some other stops on his agenda. We're expecting

him to head to the Pentagon later today where he'll sign more executive actions.

We're also expected him to meet with his defense secretary, James Mattis, and lay out some of his objectives for defeating ISIS.

Back to you.

CURNOW: Yeah, this is going to be a very interesting meeting at the Pentagon, because obviously there's criticism of how he dealt with his

first meeting at the CIA.

MURRAY: Yeah, that's absolutely right. And I think that his advisers have impressed upon him that maybe going and talking about crowds when you are

visiting these agencies is not the best approach. That said, Donald Trump is Donald Trump. And one thing I think is key to this is that we're

hearing from advisers that he's going to lay out his objectives. He's going to lay out what he wants his end goal to be when it comes to ISIS.

But this could be the kind of president who gives his people more latitude in how you meet those goals.

And that was one of the big criticisms of the Obama administration from people who were working in intelligence and national security that they

didn't feel like they knew what their mission was, and they felt that the White House had a heavy-handed approach in how they wanted them to execute.

[08:15:26] CURNOW: OK, it's certainly different times. Sara Murray at the White House. Thanks so much.

Well, Donald Trump could also be on the verge of implementing one of his most controversial decisions -- temporarily banning anyone from several

Muslim majority countries from entering the United States. He could sign that executive order as early as Friday and says the move is designed to

keep out terrorists.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS: Let's talk a little about the executive orders on Syria, Iraq,

Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen, and 120 banned -- that goes to the promise of extreme vetting.

TRUMP: Totally extreme and beyond just those countries, we're going to have extreme vetting. We're going to have extreme vetting for people

coming in to our country. And if we think there's a problem, it's not going to be so easy for people to come in anymore.

You look at what's gone on. I mean, we could just go one after another, but then you go to other countries, and you look at Nice and you look at

different places all over Europe. You look at what's happening with Germany. It's a mess. The crime is incredible.

And we're just not going to let that happen here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: Well, another executive order has been to crack down on so-called sanctuary cities, cities that limit cooperation on federal immigration laws

after the White House threatened to cut federal grants.

The mayors of some of those cities are pushing back as Kyung Lah now reports from Los Angeles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will not cower to fear. We are Americans just like you.

KYUNG LAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Defiance to the White House's Executive Order as sanctuary cities comes not just from the streets but

from city mayors. Chicago.

RAHM EMANUEL, CHICAGO CITY MAYOR: ...that I want to be clear. We're going to stay a sanctuary city.

LAH: Boston.

MARTY WALSH, BOSTON, MASSACHUSSETTS MAYOR: If necessary, we'll use City Hall itself to shelter and protect anyone who's targeted unjustly.

LAH: Los Angeles.

ERIC GARCETTI, LOS ANGELES MAYOR: You can't use Federal money as a gun to the head to change some other policies.

LAH: L.A.'s Mayor says, Federal funds weave through nearly all city services. Law enforcement, schools, veterans care.

GARCETTI: I'm talking to all mayors in this country.

LAH: Are the mayors going to unite to draw a line in the sand?

GARCETTI: We have. We want the Federal Government to protect those who -- temporary, illegal status and we want the -- to be fixed.

LAH: One thing that many mayors of sanctuary city say is broken, undocumented immigrants being held in local jails until federal authorities

come to deport them. Many cities argued the extended detention is unconstitutional and costly. Trump's Executive Order demands cities follow

rules or federal funds will stop.

The president is fulfilling a campaign promise after the death of Kate Steinle. She was killed by an undocumented immigrant released from a local

jail in San Francisco even though federal agents targeted him for deportation.

TRUMP: For these families, it's been one injustice after another. For that all turns around beginning today.

LAH: Some estimates more than 300 cities and counties are so called sanctuary cities while it's unclear exactly what federal funding the order

would cut. San Francisco estimate it receive -- in federal funds -- nearly $9 billion. New York's Mayor telling CNN, if Trump pulls funding, his next

punch will come in court.

BIL DE BLASIO, NEW YORK MAYOR: If an attempt is made to do that, we will go to court immediately for an injunction to stop it.

LAH: Now, democratic Mayors in Los Angeles and New York say they're confident the law is on their side so as the State of California, which

expects to face off on this issue with the White House in court.

But in a reversal, the Mayor of Miami-Dade says that he is now ordered his county jails to comply with the executive order citing that he's afraid of

the loss of millions of dollars to his city.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: OK, you're watching News Stream. Up next, a call for unity in Europe. The French and German leaders deliver a warning about populism at

home and Donald Trump in the U.S.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:21:38] CURNOW: French President Francois Hollande has warned that the new U.S. president poses challenges for Europe. Mr. Hollande's comments

came during a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Both leaders say Europe faces a rise of populism and called on the continent to

unite.

Well, CNN's Atika Shubert has more on this. She joins us from Berlin. What did they say?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this was really a joint message of solidarity, especially the challenges facing the EU. But

specifically, both leaders talked about the challenges they faced with this dramatically changed

global/political landscape. And Mr. Hollande was very clear about it. These are changes triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump. Take a listen

to what Hollande had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCOIS HOLLANDE, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): There are challenges posed by the new U.S. administration in regards to commercial

rules, in regards to the conflicts in the world.

We, of course, have to speak to Donald Trump since he was chosen by the Americans to be their

president. But we have to do it with a European point of view, and our interests and values.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHUBERT: Of course in the last week or so, President Trump has thrown out trade agreements

with Europe, but also said that NATO was obsolete and that the European Union was simply, quote, "a vehicle for Germany," encouraging others like

Great Britain to leave the EU.

So these are the kinds of challenges both Merkel and Hollande face, and they do so with elections looming this year.

Merkel, of course, is looking to be re-elected later this year. Elections have already been set for September, so it's a pressure she is in

particular facing, Robyn.

CURNOW: OK. Thanks so much. Atika Shubert there. Appreciate it.

Well, the world is closer to midnight, that's the conclusion of a group of scientists and scholars. The bulletin of atomic scientists has moved the

hands of its doomsday clock to 2.5 minutes to midnight. That clock is a symbolic countdown to the end of the world.

They cited Mr. Donald Trump's rhetoric about nuclear weapons and his views on climate change. The last time the doomsday clock was this close to

midnight was in 1953, after hydrogen bomb tests in the U.S. and then the Soviet Union.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS PICKERING, FRM. U.S. AMBASSADOR: Nuclear rhetoric is now loose and destabilizing. During the election campaign, and as President Trump

engaged in casual talk about nuclear weapons suggesting South Korea and Japan might acquire their own nuclear weapons to compete with North Korea.

We are more than ever impressed, as Rachel has just told you, that words matter. Words count.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: OK. Now to Iceland. There are few countries in the world safer than that nation, which is why the body a young woman, apparently murdered

on a beach, has sparked a wave of shock and grief. Lynda Kinkade with more on a death that's captured the attention of the nation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LYNDA KINKADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Murder in Iceland people in one of the world's safest countries are in shock after a young woman is

found brutally killed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's on everybody's minds.

KINKADE: The 20-year-old went missing two weeks ago, after she spent a night out with friends. She was last seen on police surveillance video

walking in downtown Reykjavik.

[08:25:08] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At a certain point, she disappears from the cameras.

KINKADE: It was the last time anyone would see her alive. It led to the largest missing persons search in Iceland's history with hundreds of

volunteers joining the hunt.

Police appealed to the public for help releasing photos of a red Kia spotted nearby at the time of her disappearance. Within days, investigators

found the missing woman's shoes, left on a dock in a suburb just outside the capital.

Then, a week after she disappeared, her body was discovered on a remote beach to the south. Police traced the red Kia to the same dock where they

found the shoes. Investigators say the victim's blood was found inside the car and it was rented by two sailors from a Greenland fishing trawler. The

ship was docked nearby at the time of the murder but it has left port headed out to Greenland.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The police sent out a helicopter with a kind of a SWAT team with special forces to the trawler. The Special Forces boarded the

trawler and took over control and arrested the men.

KINKADE: The two suspects are in custody but police are saying little else about the case.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why this happened and how exactly this happened remains a mystery.

KINKADE: Murders are almost unheard of in Iceland. Some years there are none.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It has gripped the nation. This is a small country with only 330,000 people and violent crimes like this are extremely rare.

KINKADE: Thousands are expected to attend a memorial service for the woman this weekend.

Lynda Kinkade, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: You're watching CNN. Still ahead, a show of solidarity. Britain's prime minister is to visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in

Arlington, Virginia. We'll bring that to you live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(HEADLINES)

[08:30:57] CURNOW: And more now on our top story. The British prime minister's visit to the U.S. Right now, Theresa May is getting ready to

visit Arlington, Virginia, to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It will be a hugely symbolic moment when she does it. She looks

like she's being explained the protocol. She has arrived at Arlington Cemetery.

And of course, it's symbolic because she works to reaffirm the so-called special relationship

between the U.S. and the UK on this visit.

Well, Nic Robertson is in Washington. He joins us now. Theresa May is there. She will lay that wreath in the coming moments. And it's an

important moment, isn't it?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It really is. She's aligning Britain with the United States. She was telling Republicans at

the retreat yesterday that she wants to make the special relationship stronger, make it productive.

And what she was reminding Republicans -- and this is what her wreath laying at Arlington

National Cemetery speaks to in so many ways, is the shared history of Britain and the United States. She spoke yesterday of how together Britain

and the United States had won wars around the world, but hadn't just won wars, had in effect helped build the world in their view.

So this is a -- to be at such a place today, a place of solemn remembrance, and to pay tribute

to all of those who have allayed their -- have laid their lives down so both nations could forge this world, as she put it yesterday. This is

very, very important for her.

She really wants to show the United States, the Republicans, Donald Trump in particular, that

Britain is prepared, as it has been in the past, to walk side by side. If we think of Churchill that really brought the special relationship into

being.

He came to Washington at a time of great national need, of Britain. The allies fighting Nazism. She comes at a time when she feels she needs the

support of the United States.

The two moments in history are different. But there is a commonality there that the forging of the special relationship came out of a need of Britain

and others to -- to partner with the United States.

So many lives were lost in World War II. And so many lives have been lost since, as we -- we've seen in Iraq and in Afghanistan. British troops have

served side by side with American soldiers, too. So this is what this moment, this event speaks to, that commonality

of a shared history, and her vision and desire for Britain to maintain that close relationship with the United States and to go through the painful

challenges of the future, be they on the battlefield or be they in the boardrooms across the world.

She wants Britain to be more in lockstep with the United States, Robyn.

CURNOW: And you talk about that shared history, and it certainly is stark. The connection and number of lives lost during World War II and during

World War II. But what is also very obvious is that shared history, that world order that was created after World War II, in many ways is under

on -- under threat because of the administration's pronouncements, and that also is going to be weighing very much on her mind as she also tries to

figure out what comes now.

ROBERTSON: Absolutely. And she -- her vision is that through this special relationship, she can speak, if you will, truth to real power to the

strongest leader in the world. And she laid some of that thinking out at the Republican retreat yesterday when she talked about the UN, when she

talked about NATO, when she talked about the World Bank, institutions that Britain and the United States had helped create that had kept world order.

And she said, look, you know, NATO may need some changes, the UN may need - - changes there, as well. But let's not discard these institutions that have served us, the countries that helped create them and the world. Let's

not discard those. As we know, Donald Trump has said that he believes NATO is obsolete, that the European Union is ambivalent at best about its

future. Theresa May believes the future of the European Union is more important.

So by showing laying this wreath, by showing literally, figuratively, symbolically that she is side by side with the United States, she hopes to

be able to in this way convince Donald Trump, convince the Republicans, this is a good, solid partner. This is a partner through the worst of

times, remembering here as we see now those fallen soldiers, through the worst of times.

And here's a view of how the future can be. She wants to impart that view of the future so that all of these losses that are being remembered here

today count for something. That's what everyone wants to believe when they pay tribute to fallen heroes of any nation, that the lives weren't lost in

vain, that the vision that they fought for means something, and Theresa May will when she goes to the

White House today be imparting something of that.

We've come a long way. We've shed blood together. But let's walk -- let's walk perhaps in on a path that doesn't go off at the tangent that President

Trump at the moment appears that from her view he might be about to do, Robyn.

[08:36:31] CURNOW: Let's watch and listen for a moment.

(ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY WREATH LAYING CEREMONY)

[08:40:24] CURNOW: Theresa May honoring the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. Powerful imagery. Powerful sounds. Powerful

symbolism, Nic Robertson.

ROBERTSON: Indeed. And this has been a very solemn moment for the British prime

minister. Again, she wants to show -- this is a very, very strong way to do this, her tribute to fallen American soldiers who fought side by side

with British soldiers, died on the battlefields across the world together.

And she wants to now help forge the common view of a common future together. But in a way, this part of her visit now as with all wreath

laying, so scripted, so carefully choreographed, so much redolent with the symbolism that she wants to convey. It's the next phase of her visit when

she goes to meet with President Trump in the few hours' time that things can potentially go off the script that's going to be a walk into the

unknown.

Her speech at her Republican retreat very careful, very detailed, set out. Everything that she wanted to say without interruption.

But now when she, in a few hour's time when she goes to the White House to meet with President Trump, this is the step into the great unknown. She

doesn't quite know who the man is going to be behind closed doors. She certainly knows the public persona. She's certainly seen his negotiating

style as we've just witnessed with Mexico.

So the next phase of her visit here, perhaps the most important, perhaps the most challenging, and certainly the one that is least scripted.

CURNOW: OK. Nic Robertson, thank you very much for all of your perspective and analysis coming to us there from Washington, of course.

CNN will cover Theresa May's visit to the White House in the coming hours.

You've been watching News Stream. Don't go anywhere. World Sport is next.

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