…As he meets with PM Keir Starmer
President Trump said Thursday he will visit the United Kingdom in the “near future” and accepted an invitation for a state visit with King Charles during a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the White House.
“It’s a great honor to have Prime Minister Starmer in the Oval Office,” Trump said. “It’s a very special place and he’s a special man. And the United Kingdom is a — is a wonderful, this is a wonderful country that I know very well. I’m there a lot. And I’ll be going, I’ll be going there and we expect to see each other in the near future. We’ll be announcing it.” Both leaders emphasized the “special relationship” between the two countries, forged during World War II.
Trump said he and Starmer would discuss Russia and Ukraine, as the president seeks an end to the war started when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
In a break with many European allies — including Britain — Trump has called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator” but has declined to give the same label to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Did I say that?” Trump said, asked to repeat his characterization of Zelenskyy. “I can’t believe I said that. Next question.”
Starmer thanked Trump for changing the conversation on Ukraine, according to reporters in the room, and said he believes an “historic deal” can be achieved.
Trump, however, disagreed with a previous assessment by Starmer that there is a risk Putin could invade Ukraine again after a deal is reached, saying he trusts Putin to keep his word.
“No. I don’t think so,” Trump said. “I think when we have a deal, it’s going to be the deal.”
“I think he’ll keep his word,” Trump said, calling it a “trust and verify” situation.
“We had to go through the Russian hoax together, that was not a good thing,” Trump said, adding he’s known Putin for a long time.
Trump said they’ll see if there are parts of Ukraine taken by Russia that could be given back to Ukraine, although he didn’t specify where.
“There are a lot of areas that were taken,” Trump said. “Yeah, we’ve talked about it. A lot of the sea line has been taken. And we’ll be talking about that. And we’re going to see if we can get it back, or get a lot of it back for Ukraine, if that’s possible.”
Trump said the two will also be discussing trade, as he imposes new tariffs on allies and adversaries alike.
Starmer said ahead of the meeting that the U.S. and Britain “want to strike a new partnership. We share the view that our best days lie ahead.”
“Taking out a chainsaw isn’t quite my style, but we are stripping away red tape and bureaucracy,” he said, at once taking a gentle jab at Musk while also attempting to appeal to Trump’s passion for a slimmed down government. “We are reforming, permitting, getting things built, reducing barriers to investment and growth, and we’re open for business, open for investment, and we’re determined to help U.S. innovators thrive in the United Kingdom.”
Starmer presented the president with a letter from King Charles, and Trump read it in real time. Trump called the British king a “beautiful man and a wonderful man.”
Britain, the U.S., and collective security via NATO
Starmer didn’t arrive in Washington empty-handed. He flew in on the wings of an announcement just days earlier that his government was planning to bump U.K. defence spending from the current 2.3% of GDP to 2.5% by 2027, which his office has billed as Britain’s biggest sustained defence spending increase since the Cold War.
Starmer has left open the possibility of that defence spending rising further, to 3%, after the next U.K. general election.
The timing of the prime minister’s announcement was notable, coming just two days before his meeting with Trump.
A White House official said ahead of the meeting that the Trump administration was “very pleased” with Starmer’s announcement, but that it still wants to see America’s NATO allies increase defence spending further, towards 5% of their respective national GDPs.
That would be more, proportionally, than even the U.S. spends on defence, which in 2023 amounted to roughly 3.4% of the United States’ GDP.
Trump has implied that the U.S. could break from the historic collective defence agreement of NATO, known as Article 5, which essentially says that if any member is attacked it will be treated as an attack on all, if other member countries do not boost their defence spending.
“I think that that means there’s got to be security guarantees,” said Starmer, acknowledging the pressure for higher spending, but also indicating that he will ask the White House to provide clear commitments to help defend Ukraine against any future Russian attack if a ceasefire is reached to halt the ongoing war.
“I’ve indicated that we will play our full part. There has to be U.S. backing, because otherwise I don’t think it will deter Putin. We are working on that. I’m having extensive discussions about it.”
A White House official said the U.S. appreciated Starmer’s willingness to consider sending British troops to help with peacekeeping efforts to enforce a potential peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, but Trump has made it clear that any and all security guarantees for Ukraine may have to come from Europe.
“I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond, very much,” Trump said this week. “We’re going to have Europe do that, because we’re talking about, Europe is their nextdoor neighbour, but we’re going to make sure everything goes well.”
U.S.-British trade
Trump’s tariff threats will also be on the agenda during Thursday’s White House meeting. A 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imported into the U.S. is set to kick in on March 12, ordered by Trump, he said, to protect American companies. Starmer may seek an exemption.
Trump implied weeks ago that a unilateral trade agreement could be worked with the U.K. If that does not happen, there’s concern that some of the estimated 40,000 British jobs directly linked to steel and aluminum production could be lost and entire plants could close.
After Starmer’s meeting with Trump, he’s scheduled to meet back in London with several European leaders on Sunday, including the heads of state from Germany, Italy and Poland. Starmer will no doubt brief them on his talks with the U.S. president.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may join them, after he meets with Trump in Washington on Friday, where he’s expected to sign a financial deal to share his country’s mineral wealth with Washington, which Trump has called “payback” for U.S. aid to Ukraine over the past three years.
