Donald Trump’s gaudy, gold-plated palace at Mar-a-Lago is a court, where the Florida king treats his visitors as supplicants, not deal-makers. His mantelpiece is stuffed with the trophy heads of penitent critics who have had to swallow their pride and appeal for his help. Sometimes Trump grants favours but more often he collects scalps. One of these now belongs to the Foreign Secretary. But never mind. Lord Cameron was right to try to persuade Trump to help Ukraine.
Lord Cameron, a Tory grandee who used to meet the late Queen regularly as prime minister, reportedly charmed Trump with whimsical memories of her, but walked away empty-handed. I’m sure Trump didn’t care a jot that Lord Cameron called the former US president “protectionist, xenophobic, misogynistic” in his memoirs. More likely it made Cameron’s act of atonement seem all the sweeter. But on Brexit, Russia and Ukraine, they couldn’t be further apart.
