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Donald Trump has raised hope in London that he could have a constructive relationship with the United Kingdom, telling journalists who liked Sir Keir Starmer “many” and that he could travel to Britain on his first foreign journey that when he returned to the White House.
Trump, who said he would speak to the Prime Minister of the UK “in the next 24 hours,” Starmer told “He is Liberal, who is a little different from me but I think he is a person Very good and I think he has done a very good job so far.
The US president’s positive comments will strengthen a meaning in Downing Street that Trump is not seeking a confrontation with Starmer, despite previous tensions with the prime minister and old members of his cabinet.
The reception in London is that Trump will not oppose the appointment of Lord Peter Mandelson as Britain’s new ambassador to Washington; He will start posting next month.
Starmer’s allies also hope that Trump will not block a controversial agreement in which Britain will remove sovereignty over the Chagos Islands in Mauritius in exchange for long-term guarantees for the future of the UK military base in Diego Garcia.
Trump did not mention the topic when he spoke with Starmer before Christmas and, speaking at Air Force One, he told reporters, “There has been number one on my list. I will be honest with you.”
The US president told a “deception” of journalists on Saturday evening that he was well developed with Starmer. “He represented his country in terms of philosophy,” Trump said.
“I may disagree with his philosophy, but I have a very good relationship with him.” Trump met Starmer for dinner last September at Trump Tower, in what was seen by both parties as a positive meeting.
Asked where he could go for the first international journey of his second White House deadline, Trump said: “It could be Saudi Arabia, it could be the United Kingdom. Traditionally it could be the United Kingdom.
“The last time I went to Saudi Arabia because they agreed to buy $ 450 billion of United States goods.”
Starmer this month told The Financial Times in Kyiv that he had a “constructive” relationship with Trump, despite the many criticism of the US president by the past ministers in the past.
Trump withdrew against the involvement of work workers in Kamala Harris’s unsuccessful presidential campaign, while technology billionaire Elon Musk called by Trump as a “waste” in his administration has called Starmer “Tirana”.
David Lammy, the UK Foreign Secretary, previously called Trump “a Sociopath hated by women, neo-Nazi”, though Lammy said both took the relationship at the Trump Tower dinner in September.
Downing Street has not received any indication from the Trump team that the president will block Mandelson as the new UK ambassador, despite the previous role of colleagues as an EU commissioner and his close links with China. “There is no problem,” said one person informed about the matter.
Starmer’s team is also sure that Trump will share the view of officials in the US State Department and Pentagon that the Chagos Islands agreement is good for US security, although it has been criticized by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Trump’s positive comments on the Starmer contrast with what he has since his inauguration regarding the EU and Canada, that both president has suggested may be hit by penalty fees.
Jonathan Reynolds, secretary of the UK trade, has argued that Britain should not be hit by tariffs, given that trade between Britain and US is largely based on services and is widely balanced.
