When Keir Starmer and Donald Trump met at the president’s Turnberry golf course, the prime minister came off second best. Remaining a convivial host throughout, Trump turned the open meeting—set up during a business trip to one of his Scottish properties—into a public schooling of the PM on political reality.
Trump’s remarks included:
- Warning Britain, and Europe as a whole, to get its act together on migration or face destruction;
- Expressing a hatred of “windmills,” i.e. wind turbines—central to Net Zero energy policy—because they disfigure the countryside, kill birds, embolden China, and release pollutants when disposed of;
- Calling Mayor of London Sadiq Khan a “nasty person” doing a “terrible job” of running London (prompting a rare and ineffectual response from Khan’s “friend” Starmer);
- Sticking up for free speech online when it was suggested that his own Truth Social network could be blocked under the new Online Safety Act.
- Advising Starmer to cut tax, maintain safety, stay out of war, and cut immigration to beat Nigel Farage of Reform UK.
Some of Trump’s riffing on policy matters at the joint press conference was facilitated by Bev Turner of GB News, whose support for farmers coincides with that of the president—a group whom he also praised in a colourful monologue.
Overall, the event did not come across as a meeting of equals, with an uncomfortable Starmer looking awkward and out of his depth, particularly in the many clips now circulating on social media.
