Many in London are wringing their hands over the future of the ‘special relationship’
WASHINGTON, DC – Those currently wringing their hands in London over the future of the “special relationship” between the UK and the USA may be somewhat mollified by news that President Donald Trump has returned the bust of Winston Churchill to its place of prominence in the Oval Office.
Poor old Winnie now oscillates between being centre-stage at the White House during the administrations of George W Bush and Trump, and being boxed up and moved elsewhere in the building during Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s years behind the Resolute Desk.
Churchill’s return, however, has not occasioned an end to London’s anxieties that Trump is about to reject Lord Mandelson as the UK’s next ambassador to Washington. While there is little evidence that Trump is so wound up about the arrival of Tony Blair’s “prince of darkness” that he intends to decline Mandelson an opportunity to move into the ambassador’s residence here, reports persist that a rejection is possible.
Foreign policy veterans in Washington cannot name a single ambassadorial appointment that any American president in the modern era has ever rejected out of hand. It would “usually be done quietly”, one former top official told The i Paper, before conceding that the words “usually” and “quietly” are not often associated with Trump.
Were Trump officials so outraged that the Prime Minister had decided to send an apostle of free trade to what is rapidly becoming the protectionist capital of the world, many observers believe they would – under normal circumstances – already have murmured a quiet word in Sir Keir Starmer’s ear. Instead, the Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, is doubling down on Mandelson’s nomination, calling him the “right man for the job”.
Some figures in Trumpworld take issue with that description. In a swaggering Monday night interview with Iain Dale on LBC , Joe Grogan, former director of the Domestic Policy Council and an adviser to Trump during his first term in the White House, excoriated Mandelson’s selection.
“Sending an ambassador to the United States that has called [Trump] a racist isn’t really all that respectful,” he said. But he then rapidly turned his fire on Lammy, urging Starmer to find “a Foreign Secretary who hasn’t made similar comments about Donald Trump in the past”.
Grogan warned that during Trump’s first term in office there was “far too much negative rhetoric…coming out of the UK about Donald Trump”, instead of what he called “respectful engagement”. He urged Starmer to “flip the page on this and be more respectful of Donald Trump in his second term”.
To hear that telling of events, Mandelson’s appointment is merely the icing on the cake. Lammy himself is, per Grogan, unacceptable, along with perhaps Starmer himself.
Into this maelstrom, Starmer apparently wishes to wade. Lammy suggested on Monday that the Prime Minister could visit Washington for White House talks with Trump within weeks. The Foreign Secretary said he was “very confident” that his boss would secure an early meeting with the President, and that “the special relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States will continue to flourish”.
But the former Prime Minister Teresa May learned the hard way that it can be a risky strategy getting too close to Trump too early. In January 2017, May became the first foreign leader to fly to Washington for an Oval Office meeting with the newly elected American President. The visit is best remembered for images of Trump and May walking along the White House colonnade, hand in hand (she later said she was providing a “moment of assistance” to Trump as he navigated a ramp).
Those moments together were the only high points of their relationship. Hours later, as May returned to the UK, Trump announced his travel ban on citizens from seven mostly Muslim countries. She had been given no warning of the decision, and the travel ban proved deeply controversial in Britain.
Trump then continually pulled the diplomatic rug out from under the Prime Minister. He belittled her, claiming publicly that she had ignored his advice on how to navigate Brexit. Only one year later, in 2018, he told the BBC that the UK was “in need of leadership”.
For Starmer, an early trip to Washington might seem to present a tantalising chance to find common cause with his opposite number in the White House. But as Icarus discovered, you can fly too close to the sun, even if Winston Churchill is once again watching over the Oval Office.