Britain’s prime minister is not known for his height but appears to be no more than a head shorter than the US president in photos of the pair released on Friday. Mr Trump, meanwhile, is famous for his robust figure – even if he is now dwarfed by his giant son, Barron.
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Sir Keir is in Washington DC this week to hold talks with his American counterpart and has warned that Vladimir Putin could “go again” in Ukraine without a security backstop. The meeting has seen the pair trying to bury the hatchet after the PM took objection to Mr Trump calling Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” – a phrase that the US president has now distanced himself from.
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In more serious matters, Mr Trump said that Sir Keir had “tried” to persuade him not to put tariffs on the UK. He added that a trade deal and agreement over Ukraine could be forthcoming. Ukrainian president Mr Zelensky is also set to be in the US and will be welcomed by Sir Keir this weekend at Downing Street.
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It’s unlikely that comparing heights will be on the agenda, but here we are anyway to set the record straight. Sir Keir Starmer is 5ft 8in – which puts him on par with French president Emmanuel Macron. The question of height came up for the first time last year, when Sir Keir hosted European leaders at Blenheim Palace.
Mr Zelensky and Hungary’s Viktor Orban were also at the conference. One thing he cannot deny, however, is that he is smaller than his youngest son... Barron, the president’s only child with third wife Melania, trumps his father by standing at 6ft 7in.
During a campaign event in Iowa back in January, Mr Trump told the crowd that he had his late mother-in-law, Amalija Knavs, to thank for his youngest son’s height. “Boy, did she take care of Barron... That’s how he got so tall – only ate her food,” he said.
“I said, ‘You’re going to be a basketball player’,” he recalled of one conversation with Barron. “He said, ‘Well, I like soccer Dad, actually’.”. “I thought... at your height, I like basketball better, but you can’t talk them into everything.”.
One man who could perhaps do with Ms Knavs’s cooking is former British PM Rishi Sunak – who stands at 5ft 6in. His lack of height was apparent when he posed alongside the then Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski last year. Mr Kawczynski is 6ft 9in, standing even taller than Barron Trump.
