But in their first face-to-face meeting since Trump returned to power, this odd couple seemed genuinely to be on the same wavelength.
Pulling out a letter from the King inviting the President for a state visit was a piece of stagecraft worthy of Trump himself, and got the meeting off to a promising start.
When the President said that Starmer had been a “tough negotiator” on trade, it appeared that there could be a division emerging – but he ended up suggesting that a deal to avoid US tariffs on the UK could well be on the cards.
Starmer did not get everything that he wanted. In particular, Trump has not yet endorsed the UK’s plans for a “backstop” in which the US would provide security guarantees for Ukraine and for the European peacekeepers who would be stationed in the country after a future peace deal.
The consequences of Trump and Putin's phone call will reverberate for years to come
Read MoreThings could still go badly wrong, as Theresa May discovered when her initially warm relationship with Trump in his first term ended in acrimony as the leaders squabbled over Brexit. We all know Trump is mercurial and a single temper-tantrum could derail his bromance with his unlikely new pal.
If Starmer can continue to nudge Trump’s policy positions closer to those of the UK, he will think that the moral trade-offs involved in backing a President whose beliefs and personal style are so different to his own have been worth it.
And if the relationship does start to go south, they will be quick to boast that the trade-offs were never a good idea in the first place. But right now, it seems to be so far so good for the Prime Minister whose greatest fear is that the “special relationship” and indeed the whole network of Western alliances could collapse on his watch.
Hugo Gye is political editor at The i Paper
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Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Starmer could hardly have hoped his trip to the White House would go this well )
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