Donald Trump has been invited for an unprecedented second state visit by the King, Sir Keir Starmer has said. The US President said that he would be visiting the UK in “near future” as he met with the Prime Minister at the White House.
Sir Keir handed the US president a letter from the King as the pair were facing cameras in the Oval Office ahead of talks that are expected to cover a range of topics, including the war in Ukraine. Mr Trump had greeted Sir Keir with a warm handshake as he arrived minutes earlier and said that “we can” reach a peace deal on Ukraine when asked by reporters.
The pair then entered the White House followed by Foreign Secretary David Lammy and the UK’s ambassador to the US Lord Mandelson. Greeting the Prime Minister as he arrived, Mr Trump said that it is a “great honour” to have Sir Keir visit.
“It’s a very special place and he’s a special man – and the United Kingdom is a wonderful country that I know very well, I’m there a lot,” he said. “I’ll be going there and we expect to see each other in the near future – we’ll be announcing it.”
Mr Trump said: “We’re going to be discussing many things today, we’re going to be discussing Russia/Ukraine, we’ll be discussing trade and lots of other items, and I think we can say we are going to be getting along on every one of them.
“We’ve had a tremendous relationship and, frankly, the Prime Minister and I have met twice before, and we get along very famously, as you would say, and I look forward to it very much.
“We look forward to the day and the meeting, and we’ll be having a luncheon after this, and then another work session, and I believe we’re going to have a press conference at the end – so I look forward to it and, Mr Prime Minister, thank you very much.”