The King Charms Trump, But Starmer’s US Ordeal Will Continue

In one legislative chamber, a British king appealed to centuries of shared history in a bid to preserve his country’s most important alliance. In another, an ocean away, a British prime minister watched his agenda get sidelined again by his past efforts to protect the US-UK “special relationship.”

The twin scenes, playing out in Washington’s House of Representatives and the House of Commons in London, illustrated how much managing ties with Donald Trump’s America has come to consume the British state. Despite Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s efforts to adapt his left-leaning Labour government to the billionaire Republican’s personality-driven foreign policy, he has watched ties sink to their lowest level in decades.