Trump's admiration for royals gives PM a card to play

Donald Trump's admiration for the British royal family gives Sir Keir Starmer a unique card to play, and he has played it with a ruthless absence of modesty.

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From the moment the prime minister produced the King's invitation from his jacket pocket in the Oval Office, Operation Flatter Trump has been in top gear.

So far, it has been a success, in that Sir Keir has secured some relief from the tariffs originally proposed by the president, and a better deal for the United Kingdom than most other countries have been able to achieve. This may not be a great advance, but it does mean that the damage from a foolish and counterproductive policy has been mitigated, according to the Independent.

Nor did the trade deal turn out to be quite as advantageous to Britain as was claimed at the time, with British steel exports still facing 25 percent tariffs — higher than the zero tariff originally mooted, even if still lower than the 50 per cent applied to most other countries.

It may be that President Trump intends to help Sir Keir by agreeing to what the British thought was agreed in May. "They want to see if they can refine the trade deal a little bit," he said on the plane over the Atlantic. "I'm into helping them. They'd like to see if they could get a little bit better deal. So, we'll talk to them."