As the two leaders and their teams, including foreign secretary David Lammy, Labour chief of staff Morgan Sweeney, and vice president JD Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio, went for lunch and formal talks, the prime minister was well on his way to securing some of the key goals from his visit.
“I think there's a very good chance that in the case of these two great friendly countries, I think we could very well end up with a real trade deal where the tariffs wouldn't be necessary,” Trump said.
Trump also appears to have been pleased about Starmer’s boost in defence spending – a policy decision Sir Keir is set to reinforce this weekend when key EU leaders and Zelensky join him for a weekend conference in London.
Trump also said he trusted Vladimir Putin, saying her was confident Russian’s president would “keep his word” in Ukraine talks.
And he said Britain’s troops “would not need the support of America” if attacked by Russia in Ukraine “because they are very good,” but conceded America “would have Britain’s back”.
