Starmer and Trump to Engage in Discussions as PM Advised UK Faces ‘Huge Dilemma’ Regarding Relationship with United States
Welcome back. This is the second day of the official visit, and following yesterday’s ceremonies, today’s key issues. Donald Trump is departing from Windsor Castle and making his way to Chequers, where he will have private talks with the prime minister before the two statesmen conduct a media briefing.
In his remarks at the state banquet last night, Trump employed some surprisingly elegant and graceful comparisons to characterize the bilateral bond. He remarked:
We are connected by heritage and shared values, by mutual respect and language and by enduring links of tradition, practice, ancestry and destiny.
We are like dual elements in unison or two verses of the shared composition, each beautiful on its own, but genuinely designed to be performed together.
The prime minister defends his use of diplomatic praise with Trump on the grounds that it benefits Britain and, with No 10 revealing US investments in the UK valued at £150bn, there is proof to suggest it’s effective.
Yet, to revisit to Trump’s metaphor, there are critics who suspect that, if anyone is being “exploited” in all of this, it’s the UK.
On the Today programme this morning, Clegg came near expressing this opinion. As a former Lib Dem deputy PM in the previous government, and a former president of global affairs at Meta, he is very well placed to comment on the partnership. Clegg informed Today that the AI investments being unveiled for the UK were “crumbs from the tech industry table”. He added he thought the UK had become over-dependent on stateside technology. And he elaborated:
Owing to the extremely tight partnership we’ve had with the United States, expectedly in the post-war period, I think we’ve been fairly unconcerned about this significant reliance … both in the state and the private sector, on US technology.
I strongly to believe that is now changing because the divide – regardless of the pageantry of the state visit by Donald Trump this week – the bilateral rupture, in my view, is real.
I think the Americans – and we’ve been on notice for this for ages – are shifting their focus to the Indo-Pacific. They have reduced attachment to the transatlantic relationship.
So my belief is, eventually, UK leaders need to learn to ask themselves new questions to how we can roll out the red carpet to US investment, welcome as that is. We need to consider questions about how we can develop and expand … our own technology companies to the stature they must be.
Clegg noted the UK faced “a huge dilemma”.
We’ve got to learn, digitally, as much as in so many other walks of life, to rely more on domestic strengths, rather than just hold on to America’s coattails.
While that benefited us well for a period, I think that’s no longer going to be the model that functions for us going forward.
Below is the plan for the day.
- Ten in the morning: Donald Trump leaves Windsor Castle
- Late morning: Melania Trump and Queen Camilla visit Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House in Windsor and Frogmore Gardens
- Quarter to eleven: Trump is expected to arrive at Chequers, where he will hold private negotiations with Keir Starmer. The two officials are also participating at an gathering for business leaders, and observing items from the Winston Churchill archive at the mansion, the designated country residence of the PM. And there will be a parachute display by the Red Devils.
- Approximately 2.30pm: Starmer and Trump hold a briefing at Chequers.