US President Donald Trump (L) shakes palms with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as they communicate to reporters after assembly throughout the Group of Seven (G7) Summit on the Pomeroy Kananaskis Mountain Lodge in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada on June 16, 2025.
Brendan Smialowski | Afp | Getty Pictures
President Donald Trump’s mercurial nature and management model has typically left world heads of state at a loss as to the right way to discover favor with the U.S. chief, however the U.Okay. seems to have struck on a magic formulation in the case of successful over Trump.
Not solely was the U.Okay. first to signal a commerce cope with the president, attaining a decrease tariff price on automotive and metal and exports to the States, but it surely additionally seems to have received him over on a extra instinctive and emotional degree.
As Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer appeared in a jovial temper on the Group of Seven summit on Monday, having taken one other step towards formalizing the U.S.-U.Okay. commerce deal agreed in Could, Trump was requested whether or not Britain can be protected against additional tariffs.
“The U.Okay. could be very properly protected. You understand why? As a result of I like them. That is their final safety,” Trump responded.
“I simply signed it, and it is achieved,” the president mentioned, calling the settlement a “truthful deal for each.”
“And now we have many, many different ones coming. However you see, the extent of enthusiasm is superb, however the relationship that now we have is unbelievable.”
United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer picks up a commerce settlement after US President Donald Trump dropped it whereas chatting with the press throughout the Group of Seven (G7) Summit on the Pomeroy Kananaskis Mountain Lodge in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada on June 16, 2025.
Brendan Smialowski | Afp | Getty Pictures
That is not an outline that many world leaders can boast of in the case of their relationships with the U.S. president. What makes it much more uncommon is the truth that Trump and Starmer — the chief of the center-left Labour Social gathering who has a authorized background — will not be pure political bedfellows.
Trump alluded to their completely different ideological backgrounds on Monday however continued to point out his heat towards the prime minister, who at one second stopped to select up the commerce settlement that Trump had by chance dropped whereas unveiling it on the G7 summit, calling him a “buddy.”
“We’re very long-time companions and allies and pals, and we have grow to be pals in a brief time frame. He is barely extra liberal than I’m,” Trump joked.
Trump’s reward, apparently onerous received and simply misplaced as former pals turned foes like Elon Musk may attest, isn’t new. Only a few weeks after taking workplace in January, Trump mentioned Starmer was doing a “excellent job.”
“I get together with him properly. I like him rather a lot,” Trump mentioned of the British chief, including: “He is represented his nation by way of philosophy. I’ll not agree along with his philosophy, however I’ve an excellent relationship with him.”
How did the UK win over Trump?
There are a variety of explanation why Britain is within the president’s good books, a few of that are purely be probability, and others are by dint of cultural practices and financial coverage.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and U.S. President Donald Trump shake palms throughout a joint press convention within the East Room on the White Home, Feb. 27, 2025 in Washington, D.C., U.S.
Carl Courtroom | Through Reuters
Initially, as demonstrated above, Trump seems to genuinely like Starmer, regardless of their very completely different backgrounds and personalities.
Trump spent years schmoozing within the enterprise world, constructing his actual property empire earlier than getting into politics and basing his political ideology on his staunchly “America First” agenda. Starmer, a bespectacled and unassuming former human rights lawyer, oversaw felony prosecutions earlier than getting into politics.
Trump was impressed by Starmer early into his second time period in workplace, describing him as “an excellent individual” who was doing “an excellent job.”
Secondly, what undoubtedly helps the U.Okay. is that there are robust cultural hyperlinks between the U.S. and Britain, which are sometimes touted as creating a “particular relationship.” Trump is a self-confessed Anglophile, with familial hyperlinks to Britain (his mom had Scottish heritage) and he beforehand loved the pomp, pageantry and smooth energy the U.Okay. does so properly.
Trump visibly loved his first state go to to the U.Okay. in 2019 when the late Queen Elizabeth II hosted the president and First Girl Melania Trump, and seemed evidently happy when Starmer earlier this 12 months introduced him with a hand-written letter from King Charles III inviting him to make one other state go to.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a letter from Britain’s King Charles as he meets with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (not pictured) within the Oval Workplace on the White Home in Washington, D.C., U.S., Feb. 27, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Earlier than the UK and U.S. introduced a commerce deal in Could, Vice President JD Vance signaled one was coming as a result of, he mentioned, “the president actually loves the UK.”
“He beloved the Queen [Elizabeth II]. He admires and loves the King [Charles]. It’s a crucial relationship. And he is a businessman and has a variety of necessary enterprise relationships in [Britain]. However I feel it is a lot deeper than that. There’s an actual cultural affinity. And naturally, basically America is an Anglo nation,” Vance mentioned.
Thirdly, and much much less romantically, one more reason why the U.Okay. has a preferential relationship with the U.S. is as a result of, placing it bluntly, it hasn’t but bought on the improper aspect of Washington in the case of commerce and, for essentially the most half, international coverage, regardless of some divergences over the diploma of help for Ukraine and Israel.
One of many predominant explanation why the U.Okay. was in a position to strike a commerce cope with the U.S. so rapidly was that it was already on an excellent footing with the Trump administration, having not run a perennial commerce surplus in the case of the trade of products with the U.S. — one in every of Trump’s greatest bugbears. Although, the president does seem to have missed the very fact the U.Okay. has a commerce surplus in the case of providers.
The U.Okay. may need additionally received favor with Trump when it did not retaliate when the U.S. imposed tariffs on it in April, albeit on the baseline degree of 10%. As a substitute, the British authorities opted to calmly negotiate, slightly than have a knee-jerk response that might have pushed a wedge between London and Washington, and Starmer and Trump.
