Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
President Trump landed last night for the start of his second state visit to Britain, even as the UK hopes that a banquet were the King lots of Pomber carriage, procession through Windsor Castle and the estate there and a meeting at Checkers with the Prime Minister will result in
investment deals, some of which have already been announced. Kirs Starmer's government has quietly dropped talks to try to lower the twenty five percent US import levy on UK steel, joining US now as Mark Lyle Grant, who is former UK Ambassador to the UN and also former National Security Advisor to the then Prime Minister twenty fifteen to twenty seventeen and joins US now Mark. Good morning, morning, Lovely to speak to you. Your service as national Security advisor.
It overlapped with the beginning of President Trump's first presidency and back then you were advising Teresa May. What would you be advising Prime Minister Kirs Starmer ahead of this visit now?
Well, I think this visit is a good opportunity for Kir Starmer. He's had a difficult couple of weeks with high level resignations from his inner team, including just recently the British ambassador to Washington. So he will want, I think a number of things from this visit. He'll want
a distraction from some of his domestic concerns. He'll want President Trump to be impressed by the sort of pomp and circumstances of the royal engagement with the President, and he will want some specific things, particularly on trade and investment, some of which have already been announced as you mentioned. So it's a high event, a high profile event both for President Trump but also for Kirstarmer.
So high profile. But is it also high risk? Is the UK making a mistake by aligning itself so closely to the US versus other allies when we see other countries taking a different path.
No, I don't think so. I mean when I was National Security, as you mentioned during the Trump first term, we did have a discussion about, you know, was this going to be particularly awkward? There were going to be policy differences, but the overwhelming view was that, you know, America's our most important ally, It's absolutely essential for us in terms of security, intelligence, nuclear defense, etc. And the best way to deal with any US president is to
hug him close. And that goes for President Trump just as much as any other American president. Now, of course, in his first term there was a conservative government in the UK and a sort of slightly chaotic, to say the least, Trump administration in Washington. This time you've got a more organized and more vigorous Trump administration and a
labor government in London. So of course there are going to be some significant policy differences, and some of those will be aired over the next couple of days, particularly on the Middle East, but perhaps also on Ukraine and issues like free speech. But nonetheless, the same principle applies that we are America's best ally and America is our most important ally as well, so there has to be a close bilateral relationship.
Of course, But hugging the United States close also does mean quite significant intervention by the US in domestic UK politics, notably Elon Musk giving significant support to the United the Kingdom March over the weekend, which is organized by Tommy Robinson and talking about violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die. I mean that Stama government had to condemn that kind of inflammatory statement. Does
it concern you? Should the UK be concerned about the threat of political interference.
I don't think so particularly No, I mean, Elon Musk is no longer associated with administration after all, and President Trump himself in the run up to this visit has been very careful not to criticize the UK or the British government in any way, and that again is different from his last state visit, when he did issue a press interview that was actually rather critical of Tuisa May at the time, I recall. So, I think he'll be very careful and I don't think that Elon musk staff
will will interfere. But I think there will be some nervousness tomorrow because tomorrow is the political day and there will be a joint press conference between Keir Starmer and Donald Trump. And in a press conference, there's no doubt that journalists are gained to be pressing both men on
issues that divide them. That's what happens at these press conferences, and so I think there'll be a lot of questions about Mandelson, There'll be a lot of questions about free speech and trying to drive wedges between the two men. And of course, with President Trump, one never knows exactly what he's going to do in response, so there'll be some nervousness in London about how that goes tomorrow.
What do you think the biggest risk facing Key Starmer in this visit.
Well, I think that is the biggest risk, the press conference. You know, the two men get on surprisingly well. We've seen for meetings in the White House, meetings in Scotland this year already, so I don't think there's any sort of personal issue between them. And it's always worth noting on these occasions that President Trump is a natural, instinctive anglifier for the obvious reasons. His mother was born in Scotland, you know, his love of the royal family, the goal
for all that sort of thing. And that was not the case with Joe Biden for sort of Irish reasons, and it was not the case for Barack Obama for sort of Kenya related reasons. So for the first time for a while, we do have an angler file, naturally anglifile president in the White House, and that does make a difference on these sorts of occasions.
Putin is seen as a mounting military threat to NATA and to Europe. Do you think that Starber will try to get Trump to take a harder line on Putin. Is that really an avenue you know that would bear fruit?
Well, it may not bear food, but I'm sure he will try because the Europeans, all European governments, have been deeply disappointed by President Trump's approach to Putin, the fact that he's promised tougher mes is tougher sanctions on numerous occasions in recent months and hasn't delivered, and seems to be very averse to taking a tougher line with Putin or indeed admitting sort of openly that Putin is solely
responsible for this conflict in Ukraine. So I think that will certainly be an item on the agenda for discussion tomorrow.
Does kir Starmer have a better chance, given that the meant the prelections of the presidents he noticed, as he noted towards the UK Does he have a better chance than other European leaders in getting Trump to do more when it comes to Russia and Ukraine.
I think he does. I think we've seen that in the sort of eight months of the Trump presidency so far, that he does have an avenue of influence with the President Trump. I don't say it's completely unique. I mean others have different inns, like the finished president plays golf, etc. But nonetheless, I think the closeness of the bilateral relationship is very different from the sort of relationship that President Trump has with the French leader, the German leader, and others.
So I think that does give him a certain opportunity to exert influence on these big policy issues like Ukraine and indeed the Middle East.