Story highlights
British Prime Minister's first name was spelled without "h" in meeting schedule
White House communications staff quickly scrambled to correct the error
The start of a renewed special relationship between the UK and United States hit a snag as White House staff misspelled Prime Minister Theresa May’s first name ahead of her sit-down with Donald Trump.
May will be the first foreign leader to meet Trump since his inauguration a week ago. But White House staff omitted the “h” in the British leader’s first name in its rundown of the Washington meeting.
The emailed schedule of events showed May’s first name spelled incorrectly in three instances – in the introduction as well as two later references during the bilateral meeting between the two leaders and a working lunch.
Communications staff quickly scrambled to correct the error, sending an “update” to its guidance a little more than an hour later. The clarification made no reference to the spelling inaccuracy.
CNN didn’t immediately receive comment from the White House on the matter.
Trump, May: Another ‘special relationship’?
As May headed to Washington, members of Parliament urged her to confront Trump on several of his more contentious policies, including climate change, women’s rights and the use of torture.
“What I think is important is that when I sit down, I will talk about how I can build on this special relationship. He has already said to me that he wants to see a very strong relationship between the US and the UK in the future,” May said in the days before the meeting.
She has said the pair would discuss the countries’ future trade relations, the importance of NATO and the Syrian conflict.
CNN’s Angela Dewan contributed to this report.
