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Theresa May is set for talks with US President Donald Trump on Friday.

Here are five important things to consider ahead of the meeting:

1. An odd couple with a shared challenge

On the face of it, the PM and President are two completely irreconcilable personalities. A vicar's daughter who prides herself on slowly reading her papers, sifting the evidence, and then coming to a firm decision. And the property billionaire reality TV star who shoots from the hip with "alternative facts" and populist slogans. And yet 2016 conspired to throw them both into high office, with huge powers to fundamentally alter their nations, and without having personally won their own popular majorities. The single Obama-May meeting in China was notable for the lack of warmth in public. Much effort has gone in to make the chemistry work. Chemistry matters in these relationships.

2. Brexit bonus

A Trump White House is, in the first instance, a godsend for Brexit. He is an Anglophile with a Scottish mother. Hillary Clinton would have continued Barack Obama's relationship with Berlin as the key European partner. He is dumping the US-EU TTIP deal that put the UK "at the back of the queue". After all, he called himself "Mr Brexit". The stage is set for him to pronounce that the UK is now at the front of the queue for trade. But there could be a sting in the tail. President Trump has made public statements that suggest somewhere between ambivalence and antipathy to the European Union. "That's gonna be the end of the EU," Mr Trump said on the campaign trail of a Juncker speech on migration. His advisers have accused Germany of artificially manipulating down the value of the euro. Mrs May must tread a fine line here. Winning a trade deal is one thing. Undermining the EU27 is not the Number 10 strategy.

3. Can May help recalibrate "America first"?

The PM will remind her audience of Republican leaders in Philadelphia that "the world relies on" institutions created by the UK and US working together. She will say that the special relationship has "made the modern world". And that with Brexit and a Trump presidency the two countries are "rediscovering our confidence together", "renewing our nations" and so "renewing the special relationship for this new age". And yet President Trump has been sceptical about many of those institutions - NATO, the EU, the WTO, the UN and the entire idea of global governance. Can the PM stitch the President back into a rules-based multilateral system? Or is Trump the end of it?

4. Not just about Trump

The PM is meeting much of the Congressional leadership. The Republicans now enjoy "unified government" controlling both Houses of Congress. This is vital for trade negotiation. And the PM will need to show that a transatlantic trade deal delivers political and diplomatic benefits beyond economics. One possible issue - she is not planning to meet any Democrats. This has been noted. If they mount a comeback in the mid-terms, around the likely crunch time over EU talks in late 2018, this could undermine support on "the Hill".

5. The third man - Nigel

It is difficult to escape the fact that the President suggested Nigel Farage should be Mrs May's ambassador to the US. He also met with him at Trump Tower way before meeting the PM after helping him on the campaign. At the time, Downing Street referred to the close Reagan-Thatcher relationship, saying: "I don't remember there being any third person in that relationship." But the President will have a UKIP-tinged perspective on British politics. His chief strategist Steve Bannon noted that "UKIP's biggest fight is with the Conservatives". And senior UKIP sources claimed last year that "May can't ignore Farage, which is delicious, because Trump and Bannon won't let her". It is a coup that the PM is the first leader to visit. But the chances are, the White House incumbent won't fail to mention the ex-UKIP leader.