Starmer‘s meeting with Trump was billed as the most important transatlantic Summit in which the UK had participated for a generation, or more.
I dedicated my entire evening to watching news coverage of this summit last night, so hyped was the billing. I would now ask you to trust me; it did not live up to expectations.
Ignore the fact that Trump clearly tried to upstage the event by permitting the return of the Tate Brothers to the USA at almost the exact moment that Starmer was arriving at the White House.
Ignore too the fact that I am, as will be obvious to any reader of this blog, hardly a fan of either of the participants. You will just have to accept the reality of my predisposition to dislike them both.
Add to those facts, Starmer's opening stunt, which was to bring with him an invitation from Charles Windsor to Donald Trump, with the implication that he is being invited to partake in two visits for the UK. One seems as though it will be an informal event at Balmoral, and the second will be a full state occasion. Given that I have been a republican for more than 40 years, I was always going to be underwhelmed by such supposed showmanship, but it is fair to say that Trump undoubtedly fell for it, narcissist that he is.
Did I then, in all the time that I spent on this issue, observe anything that was a benefit as a consequence of the cosplaying that the two supposed national leaders took part in?
If you think that success was defined in terms of there being no major international incident that erupted as a consequence of the meeting, then your limited ambitions were fulfilled.
Likewise, if you think that Trump downplaying his accusation, made in the last week, that Zelenskyy is a dictator can be called a success, then add that to your list of summit pluses.
In addition, in diplomatic terms, the fact that there was some bonhomie, despite differences being acknowledged, might be described as useful.
I presume that something might also have happened behind closed doors that could be used to add to this list. I am not privy to that, and so am struggling to expand it.
The downsides were longer, and bigger.
Trump‘s lack of preparedness, and basic knowledge, was apparent. He thought that his golf course in Doonbeg in Ireland was in the UK. It takes some pretty staggering international incompetence to get such things wrong when you are president of the USA.
There were some pretty awful comments, including Trump asking Starmer whether the UK could take on Russia, single-handedly.
Although the media did line up to ask a pretty good range of questions on this occasion, most of them seeking quite specific answers that would have put either or both leaders into difficult positions, the only consequence was that Trump and Starmer tried to outdo each other in their lack of willing, or inability, to address the points made to them.
Most spectacularly, Starmer pointedly refused to comment on issues concerning claims made by members of Trump‘s administration during the same day on the need for Canada to redraw its border with the USA, even though Charles Windsor is supposedly King of that country. Diplomatically, this was a first order gaffe, even if it probably appeased Trump in the moment.
As for other questions, waffle was the only thing on offer. I note the New York Times use the very same word this morning.
This, then, was a show, and one that was not worth watching.
The substantive discussions must also have been inconsequential, given that lunch was also consumed during the short period that the two leaders were together.
All that Starmer can claim is that he pulled off a successful stunt, and there were smiles during the course of the exchanges, as if that proved anything.
Were tariffs touched up upon? Who knows. The issue was not addressed by either leader in any significant way.
Was anything of significance said on Ukraine, accepting the potential withdrawal of the claim that Zelenskyy is a dictator, noted above? Not that I noticed.
Was the situation in Garza mentioned? Inevitably, it was not.
Did Trump have the opportunity to make some quite absurd comments, without Starmer seeking to intervene? Yes, of course, he did.
If this was the most important transatlantic summit for a generation, then it says little for the rest. All that can be said is that it did not go horribly wrong. When aspirations are that low, politics is operating at a level well below that required for the hopes of people to be met. Using that criteria, this summit failed.
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The one significant moment was perhaps when Starmer said that any peace deal ‘cannot reward the aggressor’. That seems to be quite a serious red line.
https://www.france24.com/en/video/20250227-starmer-says-ukraine-truce-can-t-be-peace-that-rewards-the-aggressor
It was worth saying, I guess. It seemed to be pretty much ignored. There was no agreement on who the aggressor is.
No doubt that the military aggressor is Putin. But there are other types of aggression not least the fascist aggression of the Ukraine central government in overtly discriminating against its biggest minority, banning their language in television, state schools and even from dual road signs.
“discriminating against its biggest minority”
Which is ?????
It needs to be seen in context. Since the invasion a lot of Russian speakers have been adopting Ukrainian.
It’s difficult to say how the measure was implemented.
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/jun/08/sergey-lavrov/russian-has-not-been-banned-ukraine-despite-repeat/
The 2019 law came five years after the annexation of Crimea and events in the Donbas. In those areas Ukrainian textbooks have been removed from schools and Russian has replaced Ukrainian.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/03/russia-ukraine-a-decade-of-suppressing-non-russian-identities-in-occupied-crimea/
A bit like watching a stand-off with a deranged gunman. Relief to get through it without a disaster.
I wonder what will happen when the yellow Felon is forced on the population in Scotland. They have no love of him, from his previous destructive acts locally. Perhaps a security clamp down. But the Scots have a long record of evading English machinations, so getting him to Balmoral where his majesty will have to try to ignore the amber ones passion for the destruction of the environment to make a quick buck, may prove “interesting”. Both for the UK internally, and externally.
My bet is on the Scottish people, not the barrister from London.
Don’t you worry, The people of Scotland will give the orange felon the reception he deserves
I am hoping so
I hope England does so too
It seems the UK might now avoid Tariffs so in that sense Starmer has done well. Trump was publicly positive about him too.
I think you are being hopelessly optimistic there.
We have a VAT, just like Europe.
On avoiding tariffs Trump said: “we will have a ‘beautiful’ [US/UK] trade deal”.
What fun! Chlorinated chicken, hormone beef, an NHS sellout and other crap (plus blocking any future alignment with the EU). I can see Mandelson and Jonathan Reynolds getting exited already!
Brilliant stuff as ever from Labour!
(Forgive me as I silently scream!)
And US cars, with which he seemd obsessed.
No thank you to all that, not least because the end of the NHS has also always been a price for that.
Thank you, Duncan.
That’s one reason why Mandelson was appointed as ambassador. He was business secretary and EU trade commissioner. His Global Counsel firm counts many of the US firms wanting to profit from a trade deal, including sell off of the NHS. Mandelson is the best person to broker the deal.
You mean a sell out, not deal, I think?
@Duncan MacInnes & Richard Murphy
Do the people of England really want a trade deal with the USA?
Most comments I read on the internet (Guardian, Economy Talk, The Fail, Liz Webster Save British Farming..etc..) points in the direction that that they do not a trade deal with us Yanks.
If England wanted a trade deal with the USA then why did they not attempt to expedite negotiations with the sane Biden administration?
We know that no such deal is possible with the NHS and the quality/safety of our food surviving the deal.
Even if we are let off having the chlorinated chicken there might there be clauses in a trade deal with Trump that allow corporate courts to sue people who voice concerns about the safety or possible toxicity of products. I suppose Starmer had to meet Trump but I have zero confidence that Starmer has our backs. Improving his poll ratings and stopping supporters defecting to Reform seem to be his priorities
I think I’d prefer the tariffs.
Spot on Richard.
Trump’s suggestion that UK might avoid EU trade sanctions – fulfilled my expectations.
Trump and Russia want UK to be as far away from the EU as possible – and this is an obvious lever.
The more one reads about UK’s integration into US defence, intelligence and economic system – the more obvious that we are already the 51st state in all but name. We are airstrip one.
Starmer in the White House press conference treated like a well loved family pet – a poodle.
And the ‘British’ press loved it
Indeed
We mght pay a very high price for keeping Trump happy
Trump was clearly enjoying himself when asked about tariffs for the UK – joking that Starmer had tried very hard and earned whatever he is paid. He was taking the piss and that says it all about the “special relationship”
What was remarkable about yesterday?
I didn’t watch the news coverage (no, that’s not remarkable!)
Today, I read your commentary and seriously wondered if you had written it before turning on the television. The event was, apparently, predictably and pointlessly dire – and for that the PM flew across the Atlantic in order to expend a lot of hot air and achieve no real result. Can I say “carbon footprint”?
He might as well have just faxed the invitation to Musk, the Keeper of the Privy (all puns intended) Purse, via Mandelson. Why keep an Ambassador if you are going to “bark yourself”? Poor Charles.
I thought about drafting something in advance.
I actually write that at 6.30 this morning.
I agree with you, maybe not much would have changed.
Trump the other day “Zelensky is a dictator” – yesterday “Did I say that. I can’t believe I said that”. Bloody hell, yes you did, and the whole bloody world saw you and heard you say it you piece of orange trash.
Neither Trump nor Starmer can be trusted. In both cases, their words are not their bonds.
“Neither Trump nor Starmer can be trusted. In both cases, their words are not their bonds.”
Never has a truer statement been posted anywhere on the internet at anytime.
“And US cars, with which he seemd obsessed.”
Majority of which are too big and heavy (especially electric ones) for our rubbish roads! I don’t know what the roads are like in other places in UK but they’re dire here in Liverpool. Council keeps coming back and filling in the holes in our road (suburban side road), but they soon return, falling apart around the edges of the infills.
Have to apologise for having a largish car (not a Chelsea tractor though!) myself, but my excuse is that I need a decent sized boot to put folded wheel-chair in without having to take it to pieces. Of course it’s saving OH from having to break it down, he does all the driving too. I stopped driving about 20 years ago when I felt my reaction time and concentration were going downhill. I miss it still!
I don’t love driving
I’d hate not to be able to do it – and I know one day that will happen
And yes, roads are pretty dire everywhere, in my experience
“And yes, roads are pretty dire everywhere, in my experience”
Why not do as we do in Yankland; Slap a tax on petrol (gasoline) earmarked for road construction and maintenance only.
It is a fair tax because the more you drive the more you consume the road ways. The more roadway you consume, the more petrol you use and the more tax you pay.
We sort of have that.
And the last time I was in the States the collapsing road infrastructure looked pretty scary to me.
“And the last time I was in the States the collapsing road infrastructure looked pretty scary to me.”
It depends whether you are on a Federal, State or Local road and which state you are in.
Washington DC was my usual haunt, and the bridges looked very worrying.
Are American cars still ‘unsafe at any speed’ (Ralph Nader)?
Frank Zappa described American products once as ‘a bit cheesy, but very well made’ does that still up to scrutiny?
I use U.S musical instruments – guitars and amplifiers I have Mesa Boogie guitar amp and Greer Lightspeed over drive pedal that are both frighteningly superb.
It’s not American industry or the American people that are the problem: it’s the American government and what they get up to under all that mendacious bull about God, freedom, apple pie and being the world’s policeman that gets me.
The Trans Atlantic partnership was an alliance was built by Churchill and Roosevelt who shared common values. Trump has none of these values. There is no trans Atlantic partnership. We have a media circus that pretends that the empire has not fallen.
“Politics is show business for the less talented.”
(?)
Health secretary Wes Streeting has stressed that the NHS is “not on the table” in any US trade deal, and that it is “not up for grabs” Guardian.
Anyone believe this guy’s utterings?
No…..
Thank you, Richard.
@ Bay Tampa Bay: What makes you think Biden would give the UK a better deal than Trump? During the Biden presidency and even as early as the Clinton and Obama administrations, the same US firms were pushing for greater private provision.
It’s not Trump. It’s the US. This is why, outside the west, no one makes a distinction between the Republicans and Democrats.
@ Bill Williams: Why the focus on Trump? Do we share the same values as Clinton who had a Sudanese medicine factory bombed to divert attention from Monica Lewinski? Do we share the same values as George Bush II and his illegal invasion of Iraq?
Ten years after America’s defeat in Indochina, my father, a doctor then in the RAF, wrote a paper for the government on the use of defoliants in Indochina by the US. It’s horrific. This was war waged by these nice and cuddly Dixiecrats. Can you see why no one outside the west makes the distinction between Trump and other US leaders?
Quite a lot to agree with
I agree, the US position has always been poor. It’s just got worse.
Thank you, Richard.
Trump is an extreme case, but the direction of travel has been clear for decades. I think that is explained by circumstance and Trump’s narcissism and business background. This said, having worked with US business people, Trump is not out of the ordinary. He’s crude, which is why the NYC business elite looks / looked down on him.
@Colonal Smothers
“@ Bay Tampa Bay: What makes you think Biden would give the UK a better deal than Trump? ”
Biden is sane and reaching a trade deal had possibilities.
Trump is insane and there are no possibilities of reaching a trade deal as Trump could change his mind a million times the day after the deal was signed. Any negotiation with Trump or his administration is just an episode of the reality circus show.
Thank you.
I’m old enough to remember Biden from the 1980s. I was at school at the time.
I have worked on Wall Street, as a bankster, and, as a lobbyist, in Washington, including on secondment to the banking trade body. Biden is marginally less boorish than Trump, but no less dangerous.
I am going to disagree with you.
Trump is wildly more dangerous. I am no fan of any American president in my lifetime, even Carter. But Trump is very obviously much moprew dangerous than Biden. I think you are wrong, unless you can proivide counter-argumemnts.
I have thought more about this. Let’s be clear – Biden stood by Israel as it conducted a genocide – and if that is what you are referring to, I get your point. But I still think the chaos from Trump is worse.
Then we have today. That must be the most embarrassing press conference with a leader of a country illegally invaded by an autocratic state in history.
So are we all taking to the streets when the man baby that it Trump visits the UK.
I am are you, time to organise.
Sadly I can’t see Starmer having the back bone to call of the visit.
Reading this in the evening (Friday 28th) after listening and then watching the ‘mugging’ of Zelenskyy in the White House…
What a contrast!
That’s what the US apparatus can do to you if you don’t grovel obsequiously and gratify their rapacious desires for more. The CEO/President and his Veep being just the latest, most blatant, bare-knuckle-fighting incarnations of that spirit.
What I witnessed was a school child offering an apple to a bullying teacher. Not out of respect or admiration but in the vain hope that the class would be saved from punishment and excessive homework.
As Everitt McGill might say, “Damn! We’re in a tight spot.”
It is worth watching this presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiEYVJi7LzU. It was a fairly good analysis of the rare points where both Macron and Starmer managed to pluck up the courage to contradict Trump’s lies. It also focuses on a couple of really embarrassing questions asked by the press that highlight Trump’s arrogant ignorance to make him a global laughing stock.