‘Don’t mention the special relationship’: how should UK’s next PM handle Donald Trump?
The Guardian – US News
theguardian.com
Summary
Little-known abroad, Andy Burnham has a chance to define a new era of US-UK relations. Should he seek to charm or bargain with the bully in the White House – or treat him ‘like a poorly informed constituent’? If, as expected, Andy Burnham becomes the British prime minister later this month, one of his first telephone calls is likely to be with Donald Trump. Trump’s mother was Scottish and he has a nostalgic fascination with Britain. Trump wishes to be seen as royalty and his idea of an equivalent is a king, not a prime minister.” Burnham has near zero name-recognition in the US – but political strategists and foreign policy experts agreed this clean slate could be an asset. From the man in the street to most people in Congress, he is a nobody. “He’s a regional politician. He’s attracted attention from politicians who are, frankly, desperate to move on from Starmer, so this is not someone who’s established a reputation on the international level, who’s made important statements about domestic policy that would have travelled across the Atlantic. ” As the mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017, Burnham is out of practice when it comes to walking the tightrope of international diplomacy. For a Labour prime minister there are yawning policy gaps on every issue from climate and immigration to Iran and Nato. Indeed, Trump consistently views diplomacy through a personal rather than policy lens. It’s about his policy platform domestically in New York.
From the source
Little-known abroad, Andy Burnham has a chance to define a new era of US-UK relations. Should he seek to charm or bargain with the bully in the White House – or treat him ‘like a poorly informed constituent’? If, as expected, Andy Burnham becomes the British prime minister later this month, one of his first telephone calls is likely to be with Donald Trump. Trump’s mother was Scottish and he has a nostalgic fascination with Britain. But managing a relationship with the erratic, transactional and demanding US president has been a diplomatic minefield for Burnham’s predecessors. Continue reading...
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Published by The Guardian – US News on theguardian.com
