Starmer tries to woo Trump – but has the US-UK relationship lost its spark?

UK PM hopes charm offensive will yield benefits but Eurosceptics in president’s coterie could scupper plan. Is there enough love left in the US-UK special relationship or has the magic faded?. That is the question that Keir Starmer arrived in Washington to pose at what Sir Peter Westmacott, Britain’s ambassador to Washington from 2012 to 2016, called “one of the most consequential meetings of a British prime minister and president that we have had since the second world war”.

Starmer arrived on a charm offensive bearing an “unprecedented” invitation for a second state visit from King Charles and – stifling concerns that Trump is maneuvering to throw Ukraine on the bus – told him “thank you for changing the conversation to bring about the possibility that now we can have a peace deal”.

The early signs were favourable, although hardly a slam dunk. Trump said that American workers mining Ukraine’s mineral wealth could serve as a “backstop” to further Russian aggression. Trump spoke favourably about a controversial deal proposed by Starmer to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and then lease them back to maintain control of a strategic airbase. And Trump suggested that the UK would not face the tariffs that he has mulled slapping on the EU.

He even showed backbone as he followed Emmanuel Macron’s lead in correcting Trump’s claims that Europe had only given military aid to Ukraine in the form of loans. But a larger rapprochement is a long shot. The Trump administration is filled with Eurosceptic – from Elon Musk, to JD Vance, to Trump’s own son Donald Jr – who have ridiculed European leaders and endorsed alternate histories of the Russian invasion of Ukraine that skew closer to Kremlin dogma than to those of Ukraine’s allies in Brussels or Washington.

But Trump is notorious for his mercurial nature, and the effect that his negotiating partners can have on him is renowned. He has been said to repeat whatever point of view he has heard most recently, a trait that was exploited by his own advisers during his first administration. Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, said on Thursday that “as many Europeans as can meet President Trump the better”.

Samir Puri, an associate fellow in the UK in the World Programme at Chatham House, said: “If you’re not in the room to be able to pitch in with your perspective, it may simply never be considered. Now, it’s no guarantee of success, but I think that actually does have value. It’s always important to state the criticality of face-to-face diplomacy.”.

He said: “I think it does matter that you’ve got the you’ve got the country that’s been invaded, Ukraine, and you’ve got the two biggest and most powerful military powers in Europe, the UK and the French, having their president, prime minister, come visit in the same week.”.

Yet there are significant headwinds for the UK in the United States. Trump has name-checked Macron and Starmer as men whom he likes, but said in a radio interview earlier this week that they “haven’t done anything” to end the war. “Macron is a friend of mine, and I’ve met with the Prime Minister and he’s a very nice guy … [but] nobody’s done anything,” he told Fox Business.

When the new administration arrived in Washington, secretary of state Marco Rubio called allies across the world – but the initial list did not include the UK, France, or Germany. Trump and his allies have said that they want to turn America’s focus away from Europe toward China and the Indo-Pacific, and have mulled pulling troops out of Europe – including in the Baltic countries bordering Russia. Europe must be responsible for its own security and for that of Ukraine, he has said.

And many in Washington, particularly in the Republican party, see Europe’s politicians as ideologically opposed to the US, culminating in recent remarks by Trump that the EU was founded to “screw America” and JD Vance’s speech at the Munich security conference where he told European leaders that “if you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you”.

“Engaging with Europe is just not their priority at all,” said Max Bergmann, the director of the Europe, Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. That might provide an in for Starmer, who represents a post-Brexit “global Britain” which boasts it has more maneuverability than EU governments may have. But as that transatlantic divide between the US and the EU grows, particularly in questions of trade and defense, Starmer may find himself trying to bridge a widening gap in a similar way to which Tony Blair did during the Iraq war.

“The UK is in an impossible position where, on the one hand desperate to maintain the special relationship,” said Bergmann. But “Europe is moving in a different direction.” To wit: high-level talks between secretary of state Marco Rubio and Kallas, the EU diplomat, were called off on Thurssday due to “scheduling issues”.