London
–
In a speech at the state’s banquet, Donald Trump said the bond between the United States and the UK “will not break.” In fact, the UK government has been afraid throughout the week that one misstep during a US president’s visit to the state could blow up “special relationships.”
Trump’s second visit came in a terrible time for the troubling British prime minister. A few days before Trump arrived, Starme fired Peter Mandelson as the UK’s Washington ambassador, after the extent of his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein became impossible to deny. He then had to make sure Mandelson’s absence didn’t give too much attention to Trump’s own past relationship with Epstein. (The president says he cut off friendship with disgraced investors in the mid-2000s and didn’t talk to him for years before he died in prison in 2019.)
There was nothing to ruin Trump’s visit. They were arrested the night before his arrival when activists projected images of Trump and Epstein on Windsor Castle. The president was always kept his arm length from the British people to avoid seeing him protest against his visit and his politics. Even journalists seemed good. At the press conference, only one priority was asked about Epstein.
If the government’s objective was to avoid Snaphus, that modest mission was achieved. But now the state visits are wrapped around, and the UK stocks what it has earned in return. For two days, the British nation showered Trump with all the dignity that Marshall could have. What are you buying these days?
Starmer’s biggest coup is an investment worth £150 billion ($20.3 billion) from a US company called “Tech Prosperity Deal.” Around £31 billion will come from US tech giants to bolster UK AI and high-tech infrastructure, but the majority of that investment (£90 billion) will come from private capital company Blackstone over the next decade.
The government is desperate for good economic news before the November budget, claiming that investment will create around 7,600 jobs.
But not everyone is sure. Most of the investments are previously announced commercial decisions and are now consolidated into contracts to coincide with Trump’s visit.
Olivia O’Sullivan, director of the UK programme for Chatham House Think Tanks, said, “There are big question marks about these transactions, such as the concessions the UK has made to maintain these close technical relationships.
Former British deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, who has been a top policy executive in Meta recently, warned that the technical contracts are just “seconds after Silicon Valley.”
“We’re technically a kind of vassal,” Clegg said Wednesday. “In a way, this US-UK Tech deal is just another UK version of Uncle Sam’s coattail.”
Building something like the AI infrastructure envisaged by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, one of the high-tech bosses invited to Wednesday’s state banquet, would require the UK to increase its energy supply. Trump has long denounced the UK for its plans to halt oil and gas drilling in the new country.
However, the two countries have found commonalities in nuclear energy. The US and the UK signed a contract this week between the two countries to facilitate the construction of nuclear power plants.
Still, the potential economic benefits of these transactions are long downstream. “The evidence is in the pudding,” O’Sullivan said. “The people here want to see economic benefits, but they don’t happen for a while.”
In the short term, the UK economy remains roughly the same as when Trump arrived. Yes, Trump’s 10% tariff on most British goods is lower than what he put in the European Union. And yes, the UK can boast that it is the first country to attack post-duty trade contracts with the US. However, the 10% tariff is still 10% tariff, much higher than when Trump took office. And there is still not much physicality in the bones of that trade contract.
Before Trump arrived, the UK wanted the US to scrap the 25% tariffs currently applied to steel exports to the US. These plans are now on ice, bringing the UK steel industry closer to the brink. Last month, the third largest steelwork collapsed into government control.
Regarding foreign policy, we avoided major conflicts with priority. Trump said he opposed Britain’s plan to recognize the Palestinian state later this month, but he did not forcefully criticize his lack of favor.
He skillfully shines through the troublesome issues, but Priority fails to draw new foreign policy commitments from the president. Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin “really disappointed me” that he failed to resolve Russia’s war in Ukraine, but he said he did not commit pressure on Putin to agree to a peace deal.
But one thing the UK is getting from Trump is increasingly Trump’s politics. Upstart Reform UK Party leader Nigel Farage has stepped up far ahead of prioritized labor, pledging to “make Britain great again” and has enacted a Doge-style cut to the British state.
Farage has mercilessly plagued labor in the struggle to control illegal immigration. This is a topic that caused uneasy supper at the end of an otherwise carefully processed press conference. When asked about efforts to stop illegal immigration across the southern US border, Trump said he was smart enough to “call the military” to tackle UK issues. His advice may further boost the hard-working opposition in the UK’s rest.
If Starmer’s goal was to dodge a bullet that might have come for him or Trump’s path, the state visit was a success. But if the purpose is to translate the President’s English into meaningful commitments on trade and foreign policy, the UK may feel a quiet and short change.
