Trump Town

Stefan Rousseau, chief political photographer at the Press Association, recalls the day Theresa May met President Trump at the White House in January

Our day in Washington started early with a visit to Arlington Cemetery, where Theresa May would lay a wreath to remember America’s war dead. On any other day this would have been our main picture – a sombre occasion with lots of colour and emotion. However, unless our pictures featured President Trump, then they wouldn’t really compete with what we would get later.

We arrived at 7.30am. It was freezing and we waited an hour before the Prime Minister arrived. The pictures made ideal ‘holding’ photos to go with the story the news sites were running about Mrs May becoming the first foreign leader to meet the newly elected President.

We soon relocated to a café over the road from the White House and waited for our allotted report time before we could enter. It was already 3.30pm in the UK and my office wanted everything sent direct from my camera. It would be noon (5pm GMT) when the two leaders would meet. That, coupled with the fierce competition from other agencies, meant that being the first to get pictures to the UK was a challenge.

Media scramble

To get the images out into the world I had to connect my camera to my phone via Wi-Fi, and connect to the London office via FTP. I knew from previous visits that the phone signal in the White House is poor to non-existent. So I had two worries: transmitting the images successfully and getting the pictures in the first place. About 20 members of the media went into the Oval Office and it was, as ever, a bit of a scramble.