Saturday, March 1, 2025
Image: Simon Dawson, No 10 Downing Street.
On Thursday, Sir Keir Starmer met with US President Donald Trump at the White House to discuss the conflict in Ukraine, a second visit to the UK, and potential US tariff exceptions for the UK.
Trump described his relationship with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “a little bit testy,” and explained this was because “we wanted to have a little bit of what the European nations have—they get their money back. By giving money, we don’t get our money back.” Referring to the US$350 billion provided to Ukraine under Biden, Trump added, “I thought it was a very unfair situation.”
Starmer stated that the UK “was not getting all ours back,” adding, “quite a bit of ours was gifted. It was given. There were some loans, but mainly it was gifted, actually.”
Starmer brought an invitation from King Charles III to Donald Trump for a second state visit to the UK. Trump described the opportunity as an “honour” and spoke warmly of the King, calling him a “beautiful man, a wonderful man.”
During a question and answer session with reporters, in response to the question of what the two leaders share in common, Trump answered “We like each other frankly, and we like each other’s country.”
During the talks it came to light that tariffs may not be lobbied against the UK if a trade deal is arranged between the two countries. According to Trump if a deal was established then “tariffs may not be necessary.”
Sources
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- “What did King Charles say in his letter to Donald Trump?” — CNN Online, 28 February 2025
- Sam Francis, Becky Mortan. “Key takeaways from Starmers talks with Trump” — BBC, 27 FEB 2025
- Alexandra White, Zehra Munir, Peter Wells. “Trump-Starmer meeting as it happened: US is working on trade deal with the UK that could spare Britain from tariffs” — Financial Times, 27 February 2025
