A few days ago, the New Yorker ran a piece called “What It’s Like to be Trump’s Closest Ally Right Now.” It was a discussion about the extremely strained “special relationship” between the United States and the United Kingdom. Keir Starmer and his government have bent over backwards to placate, flatter, and manipulate Trump. They’ve been able to tease out some promises from Trump, who promptly forgets about those promises and just does whatever horrible thing he was going to do anyway. According to the New Yorker, the British foreign-policy people are at their wit’s end over almost everything to do with Trump, but the thing that’s floored them the most in recent weeks was Trump’s invasion of Venezuela and the kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro. Still, one British policy expert told the New Yorker that there’s nothing they can really do to break Britain’s historic ties with the US: “With this Administration, you would essentially be burning your bridges. You would be destroying your access. You might even start to knock away at some of the foundations, in terms of the military coöperation, the intelligence coöperation.”
Well, over the weekend, Trump announced some splashy new tariffs, basically threatening to decimate Europe’s economy and America’s economy if Europe doesn’t get on board with Trump “buying” or seizing Greenland. Denmark, the UK, the EU and NATO leaders are absolutely furious and calling on the people around Trump to get him to drop all of this sh-t. It’s gotten so bad that Keir Starmer is considering canceling King Charles’s planned state visit to the US.
Keir Starmer is facing demands to cancel the King’s state visit to the US after Donald Trump threatened to impose punitive tariffs on countries opposing an American takeover of Greenland. The president has alarmed Nato allies by warning that opponents of the move will be hit with levies starting at 10 per cent from February 1, potentially rising to 25 per cent by June if they refuse to comply. Trump singled out the UK, France, Germany and Denmark in a post on his social media platform.
The intervention has provoked fury among Western leaders, with renewed concerns that Mr Trump intends to dismantle the military alliance that has underpinned global security for eight decades. MPs have joined the backlash, calling for the planned spring visit by King Charles to Washington to be scrapped.
Senior Tory Simon Hoare said: “The civilised world can deal with Trump no longer. He is a gangster pirate.”
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy stressed this morning that Britain’s support for Greenland’s sovereignty was “non-negotiable”. “We believe it is wrong, we believe it is deeply unhelpful,” she told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg of Mr Trump’s tariff threat.
However, when pressed on the state visit, she only referred to the “depth” of the Transatlantic relationship.
Economists have warned the UK will be back on “recession watch” if the US proceeds with tariffs. Senior MEPs have cautioned that the EU-US trade deal will be frozen in retaliation, raising the prospect of a full-blown global trade war.
Sir Keir issued some of his strongest criticism of Mr Trump last night, having invested considerable effort in maintaining cordial relations with the president. The Prime Minister said: “Our position on Greenland is very clear – it is part of the Kingdom of Denmark and its future is a matter for the Greenlanders and the Danes. We have also made clear that Arctic security matters for the whole of Nato, and allies should all do more together to address the threat from Russia across different parts of the Arctic. Applying tariffs on allies for pursuing the collective security of Nato allies is completely wrong. We will, of course, be pursuing this directly with the US administration.”
“Gangster pirate” is way too kind for what Trump actually is: batsh-t insane, demented, stupid, evil and a Russia’s useful idiot. Trump doesn’t care about NATO or the EU or another country’s sovereignty. He would rather blow up everything and destroy every historic alliance rather than let this Greenland thing go. We’re way beyond the 25th amendment, but it would be nice to see some of Joe Biden’s biggest critics chime in at this point. When’s George Clooney going to publish a NY Times column about Trump, you know? As for Starmer possibly canceling the king’s state visit to the US… it would be funny if it happens, and I suspect that Starmer will use the state visit as a bargaining chip in the days and weeks to come, because Trump actually does want to host that state visit (and show Charles all of that gaudy gold sh-t he’s installed in the Oval).
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.
