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Ian Bond, a former British diplomat in Moscow who is now director for foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform, a research group in London, said he would normally cheer any chance for leaders to sit down and hash out their problems.

Mr Trump’s interview upset many in the UK by undermining his host on the day he arrived in the country. But the message wasn’t wrong, trade specialists say.“Fundamentally, it’s the correct analysis,” says Sam Lowe, a trade expert at the London-based Centre for European Reform, a pro-EU think-tank. “The closer the UK remains to the EU, the more difficult it becomes to do a trade deal with the US.”

 “Future arrangements will complicate the fact that the US and the EU adhere to different regulatory standards, said research staff of the Centre for European Reform, Beth Oppenheim and Christian Odendahl. According to analysts, the standards of food production in America are lower than in the EU, so the United States has long been calling for barriers to be removed in this sector. "If Britain intends to adhere to pan-European standards, the United States will have less incentive to complete the trade deal," experts concluded.”

Sam Lowe, a trade expert at the Centre for European Reform think-tank, said: “If the UK remains bound by the EU’s approach to plant and animal health it will remain unable to address many of the concerns laid out by India, potentially making a far-reaching free trade agreement all the more difficult.”

"We're absolutely right to be nervous," said Sophia Besch, a fellow with the Centre for European Reform (CER), about the possibility a Trump-Merkel clash could derail the summit. "[Trump] is framing the 2 per cent as the golden ticket for any European leaders to get into his good graces, and that's why everyone is so worried." Only seven allies other than the US invest in their militaries at the desired level, though all 29 are increasing their defense budgets now, a trend that started in 2014.

Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, told CNBC’s “Street Signs” on Monday that the “special relationship” between the UK and US is “quite fraught at the moment.” “President Trump isn’t particularly popular in the UK. Last week, there was a bit of a kerfuffle over the fact that someone is going to fly an air balloon with an effigy of Trump in a nappy and that’s been allowed in London. I don’t think he takes very well to personal insults, so he will notice it,” Lowe said. “So there’s problems there on the transatlantic side.”