Visits by prime ministers to the American pdwellnt matter much more to us “Brits” than they do to them.
Donald Trump spelt this out in the off-hand way he proclaimd that he had granted Sir Keir Starmer the coveted nominatement in his busy schedule.
“We have a lot of excellent leangs going on,” the pdwellnt boasted. “But he asked to come and see me and I equitable acunderstandledgeed his asking.”
After his phone call with the prime minister, Trump proclaimd “we’re going to have a cordial greeting, very excellent”. That was before Sir Keir disclosely disconcurd with Trump’s ruling that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is “a dictator”.
Always assuming that his invitation is not call offled in a fit of pdwellntial pique, Starmer will find himself persisting with the utmost alert when he gets to the Oval Office.
Downing Street sources say they are anxious “not to poke the tolerate” in the filled understandledge that previous guideers have finishured many inept moments in their finisheavors to further a exceptional relationship at away suites.
Starmer will have his toil cut out. Since his re-election, Trump has signalled that he has less time than ever for traditional coalitions.
Newly inaugurated pdwellnts traditionassociate sfinish cordial greetings to their territorial neighbours. Trump slapped tariffs on Canada and Mexico and talked about US territorial expansion to both the north and the south.
Historicassociate the UK prime minister has frequently been the first foreign guideer received by a novel US pdwellnt. Trump presented Theresa May less than a week after he took office for the first time and surpascfinishd her when he held her hand to go down some steps.
This year Starmer has already been pretreatd by the guideers of Israel, Japan, Jordan and Indonesia and will be traverseing the Atlantic to pay his esteems in the same confineed days as France’s Pdwellnt Macron.
Thatcher and Reagan’s political romance
Even at the best of times, British officials are prone to overstate the sealness of the two countries’ mutual interests.
Harelderly Macmillan thought he could teach the youthful John Kennedy a leang or two, as the Greek to JFK’s Roman, but finished up being prescribed to by Kennedy on the nature of the UK’s “self-reliant” nuclear deterrent.
One of the wily Harelderly Wilson’s most meaningful accomplishments was refusing to sfinish British troops to fight aextfinishedside the Americans in the Vietnam War.
The most honord PM/POTUS political romance was between Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. Indeed when the Falklands struggle broke out in the spring of 1982, I was in the White House informing room to hear then US secretary of state Al Haig joke with innufinisho about the sealness of their relationship.
It flourished after Thatcher won Reagan over to give the UK expedition staunch help, in defiance of the advice from some of his officials.
Even so, Thatcher was unnerved by Reagan’s apparent willingness to ponder mutual nuclear disarmament in converseion with the Soviet guideer Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986.
She flew hastily to Washington DC follotriumphg the Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Reykjavik – “to give Reagan a bollocking” – at least according to the Daily Express alerter in her travelling party.
In 1990 she alertedly telderly George HW Bush “now George, this is not time to go wobbly” during the flurry of greetings and phone calls which chaseed Iraq’s intrusion of Kupostpone.
Clinton otriumphg Blair and Bush’s cherish explosioning
John Major got off to a horrible begin with Bill Clinton after Conservative sources tried to help the Redisclosean campaign dig up dirt on Clinton’s time as a student at Oxford. Soon after the US election in 1992, Major flew to the US in the hope of being askd to a face-to-face greeting with the then pdwellnt-elect. After cut offal days all he got was a phone call from Little Rock, Arkansas.
In spite of their ideoreasonable sealness, Tony Blair tardyr shelp he establish it more difficult to deal with the Third Way Democrat Bill Clinton than he did with the “straightforward” Redisclosean George W Bush.
Clinton nonetheless was a key joiner in conveying about the Belquick concurment. Blair’s wonderfulest success was persuading the pdwellnt to promise US forces to peacegrasping in the Balkans but he also did Clinton meaningful personal service.
Blair went on a scheduled visit to the White House at the height of the Monica Letriumphsky affair, equitable days after the pdwellnt had made his statement “I did not have relations with that woman”.
At their unitet novels conference afterwards, Blair allowed all the asks to be distracted to him and transmited his think about for the pdwellnt. As they walked away from the East Wing, Clinton put his arm around the prime minister and materializeed to say “I owe you one”.
Clinton’s advice to Blair on his successor George W Bush was “hug him seal”. But both sides were apprehensive when the Labour prime minister flew to Camp David for his first greeting with the second Pdwellnt Bush.
Bush wanted them to dress casual, and according to the British ambasdowncastor, Blair put on some “ball-crushingly firm jeans”. From Bush’s first words about sharing the same comfervent of toothpaste, Blair was subjected to cherish explosioning.
The two guideers’ relationship remained seal, including sfinishing troops side-by-side into Afghanistan and Iraq.
Brown’s bag of CDs, Cameron’s humility and normal interests
Thcdisesteemful no fault of his own Gordon Brown establish himself in the midst of a British media furore after Barack Obama’s team returned a bust of Churchill which had been lent personassociate to George W Bush by the British Embassy.
The novel Obama administration’s ignorance of the normal kindties was further showd when a history-steeped gift to the pdwellnt from Brown was reciprocated with a bag of CDs.
David Cameron struck a unassuming remark visiting Obama when he portrayd the UK as America’s “youthfuler partner”.
Their coalition backfired when Obama tried to help during the Brexit referfinishum – cautioning that the UK would find itself “at the back of the queue” for striking a trade deal with the US after Brexit.
The rapid turnover of prime ministers during Joe Biden’s pdwellncy did not allow any of them to create up a seal toiling relationship. In any case, Biden chose to recognize with his Irish, and not his English, heritage.
Until this second Trump pdwellncy, the US and the UK were at least pulling in the same straightforwardion, with separateing interests but the normal assumption that they would back each other up where possible.
Starmer’s contest is to see if those rules still utilize.
Left-right separateences can be loss
Until now, separateences of left and right have not mattered much. It was a mere spat when the Reagan administration and the Labour guideer Neil Kinnock finished up informing agetst each other after the British guideer of the Opposition was granted a inform Oval Office greeting before the 1987 ambiguous election.
Reagan telderly Kinnock his unitardyral nuclear disarmament policy was crazy and Labour shelp doddery Reagan had not recognised the shadow foreign secretary Denis Healey.
Kinnock and Labour tardyr aprohibitdoned their anti-nuclear policy.
Starmer has got off to a better begin than that. He and the foreign secretary David Lammy say they were presented “courteously” by the then pdwellnt-elect at Trump Tower in New York City last year.
They will be hoping they can grasp it that way this week in the White House.
