WASHINGTON – Donald Trump has lavished praise on Sir Keir Starmer, promised to help Ukraine reclaim land taken by Russia and backed the UK’s handover of the Chagos Islands in the first White House meeting between the Prime Minister and the President.
As the two men kicked off their meeting in the Oval Office, Starmer handed Trump a letter from the King inviting him to come to Britain for a second state visit.
But despite the warm tone between the leaders, the President has so far stopped short of promising the security “backstop” for Ukraine that the UK wants to see as part of any future peace deal.
In his opening spiel, Starmer told Trump: “It is my pleasure to bring from His Majesty the King a letter, he sends his best wishes and regards of course, but he also asked me to bear this letter and bring it to you.”
After the President had read the letter in silence and praised the King’s “beautiful” signature, he invited Starmer to reveal its contents – an invitation to visit the UK for an “unprecedented” second state visit.
The letter is thought to contain the suggestion of two separate trips – one to Balmoral, likely to take place this summer, and a later full-blown state visit at Windsor Castle.
US president Donald Trump holds up a letter from King Charles inviting him for a state visit (Photo by Carl Court – Pool/Getty Images)Trump also lavished personal compliments on the Prime Minister, calling him a “special man” and describing his wife Victoria – who has not joined Starmer in the US – as a “beautiful, great woman”.
Backing the Chagos deal
British right-wingers have long hoped that the US administration would end up vetoing the proposed deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, on the grounds that the largest island Diego Garcia is home to an American naval base.
But when he was asked for his thoughts about the agreement, Trump said there would be “a very long-term, powerful lease, a very strong lease” guaranteeing the future of the base.
He added: “I think we’ll be inclined to go along with your country… It’s a little bit early, we have to yet be given the details, but it doesn’t sound bad.”
Speaking the day before Volodymyr Zelensky pays his own visit to the White House, Trump struck a much friendlier tone than he has in the past.
Asked whether he still thinks the Ukrainian President is a “dictator”, the US leader joked: “Did I say that? I can’t believe I said that.”
He insisted he has “a very good relationship” with Zelensky and suggested that a deal for America to exploit Ukraine’s stocks of rare earth minerals would help make the country safer because Russia would not dare attack it again.
There was one moment of tension, however, when Trump repeated his claim that European countries are getting the money they gave to help Ukraine’s war efforts back, prompting a rebuttal from Starmer.
Giving Ukraine’s land back
Previous noises from Washington have suggested that it is a pipe dream for Ukraine to reclaim the land that Russia has taken over the past decade-plus.
But Trump sounded much more upbeat, saying: “There are a lot of areas that were taken, we will be talking about that and we will be seeing if we can get a lot of it back.”
He contrasted that with the prospect of Nato membership for Kyiv, which the US appears to be ruling out entirely. The President said: “It’s not going to happen, it’s just not going to happen, that’s what started the whole thing.”
And there was no commitment for the US to provide a “backstop” to a Europe-wide peacekeeping force – instead, Trump suggested that Putin could be trusted to respect the terms of a peace deal, saying: “I’ve known him for a long time now and… I don’t believe he’s going to violate his word.”
Backing Brexit
Trump boasted that he had foreseen the UK’s vote to leave the European Union in 2016 – but did not bite on suggestions that Starmer’s “Brexit reset” would make it harder to get closer to America.
The President said: “I think we have just a great relationship… Frankly what they did was the right thing at the time and probably prove out over the centuries, you have a long time to go.
“I predicted it would happen and it did happen. It will work itself out, I think it’s already worked itself out.”
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