A bust of Winston Churchill will gaze at Keir Starmer on Thursday as he executes one of the trickiest visits by a British Prime Minister with a US president since the days of the great World War II leader. Starmer's critical mission in the Oval Office is to peel Donald Trump away from Russian President Vladimir Putin, extract security guarantees for Ukraine following an eventual peace deal, and save the transatlantic alliance.
French President Emmanuel Macron visited Washington on a similar quest Monday but got no concrete assurances from Trump. Trump dismissed the idea of robust US security guarantees for Ukraine, stating that Europe should take that responsibility as they are Ukraine's next-door neighbor.
