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US President Donald Trump raised the possibility of a trade deal with the UK Thursday after a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, suggesting the UK may avoid being hit by a widening trade war.
“I think we could very well end up with a real trade deal where tariffs won’t be necessary,” Trump told reporters following the meeting, the first between Starmer and Trump at the White House since the US president took office, The Guardian reported.
It came after US president threatened EU nations with a 25% blanket tariff on all imports to the US on Wednesday, levies which would have devastating effects on the bloc as regional economic powerhouses such as Germany flounder.
The US President also praised Starmer’s negotiating approach, saying: “I tell you, he earned whatever the hell they pay him over there,” The Guardian reported him saying. Starmer had arrived in Washington with a bargaining chip: A pledge to increase UK defense spending to 2.5% of GDP while cutting international aid. The UK’s development minister on Friday announced her resignation over the cuts.
Starmer appeared to “literally speak Trump’s language,” Politico noted, with the UK prime minister inviting Trump for an unprecedented second state visit to the UK: “This has never happened before. It’s so incredible. It will be historic.”
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Despite a former UK ambassador to the US describing the talks as one of the “most consequential meetings of a British prime minister and president that we have had since the second world war,” The Guardian reported, uncertainty lingered over one issue: The US’ peace talks with Russia over its war in Ukraine.
Starmer went to Washington seeking US support on Ukraine’s future security, such as air cover to protect European peacekeepers if deployed, the BBC reported.
While Trump insisted that Russian President Vladimir Putin would “keep his word” in the event of a peace deal, the US president failed to give concrete security guarantees for a postwar Ukraine, aside from having US workers in the country as part of a minerals deal, Politico wrote.
It remains to be seen whether Starmer’s pressure on the issue will have any meaningful impact on negotiations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who arrives at the White House Friday to sign a deal allowing US access to Kyiv’s minerals in return for more US support.