“W.A senior British official announced during Keir Starmer’s first meeting with Donald Trump at the White House that E’Re felt good and we were well prepared. The Prime Minister has just landed in Washington, D.C. and was directly deported to a residence designed by British ambassador wealthy Edwin Lutyens.
Amidst the glittering crystal chandeliers and marble columns, his ecstatic owner Peter Mandelson introduces Starmer to guests including new FBI director Kush Patel. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and New York-based editor Tina Brown were also present.
“I just arrived, but I’ve already felt there’s a real buzz around Washington right now,” Starmer told the party. “You can feel like there’s a new leader. He’s a real one-off politically, a pioneer in the business. Many people love him. Others like to hate him. But for us, he’s just… Peter.”
But in what might happen the next day, the prime minister’s top adviser was also concerned that it might be Starmer’s most important meeting and the most unpredictable.
“We are well prepared, but we also know that anything will definitely happen. Trump is such a mess,” the second official said. “So it’s fulfilling.”
The basics of the visit have been going on for some time. David Lammy visited Washington for the sixth time since becoming Shadow Foreign Secretary last May, meeting Democratic and Republican campaigns in the U.S. capital for a few days.
When he returned to Britain, he wrote a memo for the opposition leaders at the time, sharing his impressed by his professionalism and focus of Trump’s campaign. At the top of the page is: “The Democrats are in trouble.”
Since then, Starmer and his senior team have been preparing for President Trump, putting personal relationships at the heart of their strategy. In September, the current Prime Minister dined at Trump Tower in New York.
Three months later, his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, traveled to the United States to meet with his Trump counterpart, Susie Wiles. Others have gone to Washington in recent days and have no chance.
“If Donald Trump likes the people he is doing business, it will be different,” a senior administration official said. “He likes Keir to be down-to-earth. It’s important because it means he has the potential to ask difficult questions without risk.”
During their meeting, Trump’s enthusiasm for Starmer was evident, calling him a “special person”, praising King Charles’ “incredible” and “unprecedented” proposals, even praising the Prime Minister’s “beautiful” Accent in Surrey.
They didn’t get there by chance. The government’s strategy is triple: Trump’s candor is not an unwavering ego; characterizes the British “question” through the prism of how they benefit the United States; but also supports British national interests.
As part of the first, it was consciously decided to “dial in” the public to understand Trump’s more outrageous public outbreak, whether it was wrongly labeling Voldimir Zelenskyy as a dictator, suggesting making Canada the 51st state in the United States, or sharing “Trump Gaza” AI videotape.
Starmer brings personal gifts from the UK. The president’s family tartan includes golf caps and some Downing’s street golf balls, while his wife Melania was given a free scarf without 10 candles. In return, Trump gave football Prime Minister Mad a US jersey, his name and 10th place.
The second part of the UK strategy involves proposing an agreement on the Chagos Islands as a national security issue, which shows that a technology-centric trade deal is an economic boon for the United States and encourages U.S. security assurances for Ukraine to last for any peace treaty.
Downing Street also realized that to truly win Trump’s respect, Starmer must “show some balls” in the words of a consultant, which shows his willingness to support Britain’s national interest.
He repeatedly did this, reminding Trump that Vladimir Putin was a Ukrainian invader who challenged JD Vance’s freedom of speech in the UK and filed a case against tariffs. “He tried.” Trump joked with reporters at a press conference when asked about the tariffs. “He won whatever hell they paid him over there.”
While there are no obvious obstacles to visiting the 10 White House, has the Prime Minister’s strategy been successful for a long time? “I think we have two deals. Regarding the deal to end the war, I think we will get a huge trade deal,” Trump concluded.
Starmer left the White House with positive noise on tariffs, although Trump did not rule out imposing it entirely on them. Although officials acknowledge that policy and regulatory compromises are necessary, so are the prospects for a technology trade deal. The president suggested he could accept the Chagos deal – despite some strong opposition from his administration.
When the Prime Minister was chatting with reporters on a plane back to London to the back of the plane, he confirmed that he was “happy” about his life and praised the Trump-style thumb.
But the Prime Minister and his senior team know that any Trump approval could be short-lived and the president could change his mind very publicly. Additionally, Zelenskyy will arrive in Washington on Friday, so things in Ukraine may change quickly in either direction.
“I’m not going to put too much pressure on a meeting, it’s important to process. We started from the beginning, very basic things that haven’t reached a consensus or defined yet,” said a Starmer assistant.
The most important of these is Starmer pushing the US military “backend” to support that if a peace agreement is reached, it may eventually be in Ukraine. Trump has repeatedly refused to make any promises. Instead, he suggested that economic support from American civilians working in Ukraine working on a billion-dollar critical mineral deal is enough to stop Putin, and perhaps hope his vague position will prevent another Russian attack.
Starmer tries to focus on the final award. “When Trump presidency, the rhetoric was always very unstable, so we tried to narrow it down,” an aide said. “The president is very clear that he wants to end the war. It’s important, and we want to help him get there.”
