When Sir Keir Starmer whipped out the letter from King Charles III inviting Donald Trump for a second state visit to the UK, he delighted his host in the Oval Office. Back home in the UK, some Labour MPs had to gulp back their anguish.
“I felt like I was going to be sick in my mouth,” one Labour MP later confided, no fan of the American President nor the Royal Family. But the MP didn’t make their views public, mindful that the Prime Minister was playing one of the very few cards he had.
Trump’s latest interview to the BBC goes a long way to vindicating Starmer’s fawning strategy. The President, a long-time aAglophile, could not have been more effusive. Even so, never one to rest from a giant game of Monopoly, he couldn’t help but mention that relationship is tied up with his business interests in Scotland, describing the UK as a “great place – you know I own property there”.
You can only play the hand you have. A junior economic power to a transactional White House, Trump’s love of the Royal Family is seen as a key diplomatic asset in London.
But Starmer has also made a good impression himself, bargaining hard in direct talks with the President alongside a diplomatic charm offensive behind the scenes in Washington. One British diplomat describes the relationship with the US as “not defensive, much more of a dialogue” than perhaps they had expected when the President first took office.
“I really like the Prime Minister a lot, even though he is a liberal,” Trump told the BBC, praising the UK-US trade deal. He said he had a “special bond” with the UK and that was why he had made a deal with the country – “for the most part, in terms of your competitors and in terms of the European Union I haven’t made a deal”.
Of course, it is easier to do a deal with one nation rather than a whole bloc like the EU. But there are signs other leaders have taken a leaf out of Starmer’s book when in the Oval Office – sit tight, smile nicely and talk up your own country’s interests – especially after the humiliation suffered by Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump told the BBC the leaders of countries including Germany, France and Spain had come to respect him and his decision-making, in part because world leaders believed that there was a “lot of talent” in being elected to the presidency twice.
Upon being asked whether world leaders were occasionally “obvious in their flattery”, Trump said that he felt they were “just trying to be nice”. Just trying not to be harangued or shouted at, perhaps.
Trump’s second state visit to Britain will take place from 17-19 September at Windsor Castle in a programme that is likely to largely shield the US President from public and political protest, and involve Royal puffery taken to its extreme.
Handily, because the Houses of Parliament are in recess for the party conferences, he will not make an address during his visit, avoiding the possibility of political protests at Westminster and a revival of the giant Trump blimp dressed in a nappy that was floated during his 2019 visit.
While Downing Street can wash their hands of the timing by saying the arrangements are a matter for the Palace, these visits are carefully choreographed between the Royal Household and Government. The timing is no coincidence: the aim is to spare his blushes.
And so, the President responded in kind by choosing not to appear to care about making an address to Parliament. “Let them have a good time” instead, he said of MPs. His mind’s eye is firmly fixed on a gold carriage ride and cucumber sandwiches with the King and Queen.
Anti-Trump sentiment peaked during his first term in office, when Labour was in opposition. Back then Foreign Secretary David Lammy was among the signatories to a motion opposing a possible presidential parliamentary address, citing concerns over “misogynism, racism and xenophobia”. There’s been a lot of digging since then.
These days, while some Labour MPs still bite their knuckles to stop themselves making any public criticism of the President, most are happy to take their lead from Starmer and keep schtum. A No 10 insider joked that the Parliamentary Labour Party “has behaved better than expected” on the issue.
They’d be wise to keep their counsel while the UK and the US Commerce Department carry on thrashing out a trade deal on steel and aluminium.
Starmer’s borderline obsequiousness is nothing compared to Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte. During the Nato summit in The Hague last month, Trump compared Iran and Israel to children in a playground fight, prompting Rutte to quip, “Daddy has to sometimes use strong language to get them to stop”.
The remark caused both amusement and bemusement in European capitals. Reflecting on the incident in a conversation with The i Paper, a senior European diplomat simply mimed the look of a codfish, slack-jawed with astonishment.
And while Rutte tried to clarify it was simply a metaphor, The White House leaned in by posting a video montage of Trump’s one-day Nato visit set to Usher’s “Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home)”. Sometimes you wonder if Trump is laughing at them all.
In the meantime, when it comes to policy it turns out you can’t lay the flattery on too thick. The President was fresh from meeting Rutte at the White House when he spoke to the BBC, with Nato lobbying ringing in his ears.
Trump had made a point of using his second term to demand European allies pay more towards their own defence. Now, his line has significantly softened. Asked if the defence alliance is still “obsolete” as he once claimed, he replied, “No. I think Nato is now becoming the opposite of that” because other members of the alliance are “paying their own bills”.
That’s a significant win for Rutte and European leaders like Starmer. When it comes to Trump, hard-headed transactions only get you so far. Flattery makes up the rest.