White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in an emailed statement that Trump “looks forward to having a bilateral meeting” with Mrs May in order to “further strengthen the US–UK Special Relationship”.
The tone of the cordial statement is a dramatic shift from the US president’s recent tweets about his visit to the UK.
On January 12 he said he had “cancelled” a February visit to London to open the new US embassy in Vauxhall, because the new building was a “bad deal” for his UK envoys.
Critics suggested that in reality, he had ditched plans for the trip amid huge criticism of his agenda.
Since a state visit for the US president was agreed, shortly after his inauguration, Trump has faced a barrage of criticism in the UK.
Trump has been publicly denounced by MPs from all parties, while Commons speaker John Bercow has said the president will not be invited to address the House.
The US president reportedly also anticipated huge protests would follow him across the UK.
And the special relationship took another blow when he directly criticised Mrs May for condemning his retweets of Britain First, saying she should mind her own business.
The prime minister had been desperate to engineer a meeting to clear the air between the nations.
Mrs May seemed to be getting the brush-off when it was suggested Trump was too busy to meet her – despite organising a summit with French president Emmanuel Macron.
But the announcement that the meeting is back on could be a sign the special relationship between the two countries will be restored.