[ETA: Events, dear boy, events! See the discussion of the rapidly developing fallout from today’s disgraceful WH meeting with President Zelensky in the comments. And also this cartoon:]
Sir Keir Starmer has returned from his first visit to the U.S. following Trump’s re-election. He was attempting to shore up what Churchill called the “Special Relationship” between the two countries (a Special Relationship that seems to matter a lot more over here). His meeting seems to have gone better than most people expected, even after Starmer decided to correct the president (and then later the vice president) to his face in front of the press. “Whatever they pay him over there,” said Trump, “he earned it.”
Starmer isn’t a charmer—he’s a stiff, timid lawyer who really is only capable of standing up to people in his own party—but it probably helped that he came bearing one of the things Trump loves best: an invitation to hang out with Actual Royalty.
Robert Hutton, writing in The Critic, recapped this exchange in an article titled “Visiting Great-Uncle Don”:
You may have sat with an aged grandparent, listening to them rambling on trying to pick the right moment to interject. Perhaps there was something you needed to persuade them to agree to: a visit to the doctor, a signature on a power of attorney, or Article Five of the Nato Treaty.
The prime minister was the latest in a queue of visitors to the president’s study, so tastefully decorated in the style I think of as “School of Fredo Corleone”. Like grandchildren who have heard that the house is about to be signed over to some Russian toyboy, European leaders have been reminding the president who his real friends are. Of course, you can’t just come out and say that. You have to be patient and flatter him. Starmer had brought along a gift that no one else could offer: “A letter from the king!”
The president was as thrilled as any centenarian receiving their royal telegram. “Am I supposed to read it right now?” he asked. Usually, these moments happen behind closed doors. But then usually, the recipient can remember what happened last week. “I’ve got to tell him what your reaction is!” the prime minister replied, bedside manner fully engaged.
Foreign Office Briefing: The Super-Special Relationship Lurches OnwardPost + Comments (168)