Early signs were encouraging that Sir Keir Starmer might be able to build a genuinely warm and mutually advantageous personal relationship with the US president. Downing Street had reported that during a recent meeting with the US special envoy to the UK – Mark Burnett, a British TV executive who worked with Donald Trump on The Apprentice – Sir Keir “took a call from President Trump”.
In the same meeting, Sir Keir and Mr Burnett “agreed on the unique and special nature of the UK-US relationship, the strength of our alliance and the warmth of the connection between the two countries” and “emphasised the huge potential for even stronger collaboration on trade, tech and cultural matters between the US and the UK and looked forward to working together”. A visit to the White House later this month was also confirmed.
