Can May stop the storm

CNN)After a week in which world order has been wantonly thrown to the wind, it takes a strong character to venture into the eye of the storm. Yet in the White House with the storm maker-in-chief is where British Prime Minister Theresa May will find herself Friday. If the speech that she delivered to Republicans on Thursday night is anything to go by, May believes she is the person to calm the weather. In the five days prior to her meeting with President Donald Trump, decrees from his desk have signaled NAFTA's demise, effectively killed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, given the green light to walling America off from Mexico, and emboldened Israel to action that its neighbors fear. He has also rattled China's cage -- not for the first time -- and caused global controversy over his comments concerning the use of torture. That's a lot of diplomatic debris to have flying around. In her speech ahead of the meeting at the White House, May made clear her belief that Britain and the US must stand side by side and assume the mantle of global leadership, together. She told her audience in Philadelphia that now was the time for the two countries "to join hands as we pick up that mantle of leadership once more, to renew our Special Relationship and to recommit ourselves to the responsibility of leadership in the modern world." She also stated that while many of the institutions that Trump has previously been critical towards were "in need of reform and renewal to make them relevant to our needs today," he should "be proud of the role our two nations -- working in partnership -- played in bringing them into being, and in bringing peace and prosperity to billions of people."