The Prime Minister has met Donald Trump before. But never in the Oval Office and never with such enormous stakes, not for the US, but for Britain.
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On Monday it was President Macron. Tomorrow it will be President Zelenskyy. Today it’s our Prime Minister. A line-up of European leaders all hoping - in their own way and with their own interests - to flatter, wheedle and induce Donald Trump not to turn his back on Europe and a besieged Ukraine.
The Prime Minister, laying the flattery on strong, wants American guarantees that if Britain deploys troops, America will provide a security backstop should Russia attack them. Also there is a plea for British exemptions from trade tariffs.
Even before the letter from the King, Keir Starmer has already tried to ensure a warm welcome from his capricious host by pledging to increase defence spending - sacrificing the foreign aid budget to pay for it. Did it work? We’re about to find out.
Can any guarantees from the mercurial Donald Trump be trusted? And is the so-called special relationship in the transactional world of Trump an opportunity or a trap?
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