There wasn’t a whole lot of surprise when Donald Trump selected Saudi Arabia as the first foreign country to visit after his return to the White House earlier this year. The US President has always enjoyed the warm and lavish reception he receives there, and it had been his choice during his first term, too.
What was perhaps more striking was the number of American business leaders – as many as 30 – who accompanied Trump on that trip, signing as much as $2trn in deals, not just with Saudi Arabia, but also with the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. The White House claimed they included the “largest defence sales agreement in history”.
How Sir Keir Starmer and his closest advisers must be hoping they can replicate even a fraction of that success during Trump’s current state visit to the UK, where he isn’t accompanied by as many business leaders, but still a decent number, and the majority drawn from the world of tech.
Attending the state dinner at Windsor Castle will be Jensen Huang, CEO of chipmaker Nvidia; Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT; and Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman. Reports suggest deals worth up to $10billion could be signed during the visit.
Earlier this week, a spokesperson for Starmer said he hoped the visit of the so-called “tech bros” could help create as many as 1,800 jobs in the UK and deliver “for working people”.
A lot has happened since February, when Starmer invited Trump for his second state visit, saying at the time that it was “truly historic” and “unprecedented”.
Cast your mind back and you may recall that, at the time, the US President was threatening sky-high tariffs on even America’s closest allies, and delivering televised verbal beatings to the likes of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Back then, No 10 believed that the way to get the best deal possible was to flatter and fawn over Trump, and Starmer did just that, handing over the official letter from Buckingham Palace, signed by King Charles III, who the President declared was a “beautiful man”.
Having negotiated tariffs of just 10 per cent, one of the lowest Trump agreed to, Starmer will be hoping this week’s state visit can help on several fronts.
The Prime Minister is fighting for his political future after a series of missteps, mini-scandals and firings that have put the Government’s approval rating at just 12 per cent, according to a YouGov poll, with 69 per cent saying it is not doing a good job.
Adding to Starmer’s recent travails was the firing of Lord Mandelson, the UK’s ambassador to the US, after a series of revelations showed just how close he had been to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In one email from 2008, Mandelson told Epstein he should “fight for early release” after his conviction, and in another he said: “I think the world of you.”
Starmer would be wise not to mention Mandelson or Epstein with Trump; the US President is also fighting allegations over the nature of their one-time friendship. Among other things, Trump has denied reports that he contributed a suggestive message and lewd sketch for a “birthday book” for Epstein, years before allegations of sex abuse by Epstein became public in 2006.
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During the visit, Starmer may try to win over Trump by addressing Britain’s technology taxation and online safety laws. The PM recently told the House of Commons: “In relation to trade talks, obviously there are questions about the appropriate way to tax digital services, etc. There are questions about how technology impacts free speech.”
If things go smoothly, the two countries could see an agreement on three areas – a new science and technology partnership, advances in defence technology cooperation, and better and more efficient cooperation in civil nuclear power.
By all accounts, Trump was very happy during his first state visit in the summer of 2019, when he was met by a 41-gun salute and was hosted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.
This time around, accompanied by First Lady Melania, he will visit King Charles and Queen Camilla on Wednesday. Thursday is set aside for hard talks between the leaders and officials.
Trump will also be staying at Windsor Castle. “The trip to the UK is going to be incredible,” he said recently. “It’s going to be very exciting.”
Starmer, with his back against the wall and preparing for the Labour Party conference two weeks from now, will be hoping everything turns out to be “incredible”, and that Trump and his travelling troupe of tech bros deliver some much-needed positive news.
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