The first thing to comment on about the Starmer-Trump summit are the optics, the visual presentation of the meeting. The two men were dressed almost identically. Both men, it would appear, are fans of the dark suit, white shirt, red tie combination.
Trump was wearing the dark blue suit which is his favourite. It looks quite baggy but it’s part of his brand.
Starmer looked sharp in what looked like a dark charcoal colour. It looked good and I wondered if that was one of the suits Lord Alli so kindly bought him before the General Election last year.
Trump was in his element. He is very familiar with the White House by now. He walks around like he owns it. It’s difficult to imagine him living anywhere else.
While Starmer sat like a studious pupil, cross-legged, the President sat in his usual open-legged pose. Trump never crosses his legs. It looks too defensive. Not good. The President’s first rule of winning, don’t forget, is “attack, attack, attack”.
Keir Starmer may be happy with Trump meeting, but in reality nothing has changed – Kwasi Kwarteng
GB News/Getty Images
Trump spoke in his trademark way. Exaggeration, veiled threats, catty, caustic remarks are his stock in trade. I don’t think Sir Keir Starmer has ever been described as “terrific” by anyone, including even his nearest and dearest.
Donald heaped praise on Brexit, Sir Keir and his “beautiful” wife. He also made a few awkward remarks about the “British military”, which was and had always been “incredible”.
The President was gracious enough to say that our soldiers could “take care of themselves”, as if describing kids at a rough inner-city school in New York.
Part of the fascination about Trump is his unpredictability. You never quite know which Trump you’re going to get, at any one time. There’s angry Donald, there’s funny Donald, there’s bragging Donald, there’s charming Donald, there’s spectacularly offensive Donald, among many other variations.
Yesterday we got many versions but, on the whole, the President was charming and friendly. The biggest theatrical coup, surprisingly, came from our side.
Whichever official thought of getting the Prime Minister to present a letter from His Majesty the King to the President, inviting him for a State Visit deserves a promotion or, at least, an OBE.
To start the press conference with the presentation of the letter, I thought, was a master stroke of British diplomacy.
Substantially, it’s unclear what was actually said. Trump was studied in his evasion. Starmer will be happy that Trump didn’t immediately squash the appalling Chagos sellout. He said vaguely that things would “work out”.
Presenting Donald Trump with a letter from The King was a masterstroke in British diplomacy.
Getty Images
That doesn’t mean he is for, or against, the specific nature of the deal though Trump’s fuzzy language seems benign and unthreatening to the Labour government’s proposed surrender of the islands.
Even his words about our “incredible military” were double edged. He said he would “always” be with us, but the President also said we could “take care of ourselves”, implying ominously that we didn’t need American help.
Starmer was as sycophantic and slippery as ever. He praised the President’s leadership whereas we all know that Prime Minister and his North London lefty lawyer friends despise Trump from the depths of their collective woke soul.
Diplomacy being what it is, Starmer had to feign admiration and respect for a man he probably loathes, a man whom his Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, has publicly denounced as a “neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath”.
To be fair, warmer words were exchanged yesterday. The Prime Minister’s team will be happy with the outcome of the visit. In terms of substance, very little has changed.
Trump called out the EU for what it is, a protectionist cartel. Starmer’s North London friends will be outraged. But the meeting could, let’s all agree, have been much, much worse.