Four surprises from Trump’s first meeting with Burnham

There was no shortage of tripwires that could have derailed Andy Burnham’s first meeting with Donald Trump. Trump had previously called Burnham “extremely liberal” and dismissed him as the “mayor of a town”. The two men disagree on some aspects of foreign policy and their approach to artificial intelligence, so it was little surprise that the Prime Minister looked a little nervous at times as he sat beside the leader of the free world to answer questions from the media at the UN General Assembly in New York. Shorts In the end, the meeting produced remarkably little friction despite the discussions straying into sometimes contested territory, including the Falkland Islands and the Ukraine conflict. The only openly hostile exchange came over the Chagos Islands, with Trump again describing Britain’s plan to settle the status of the joint military base on Diego Garcia as a “terrible deal”. Otherwise, the two men, who met for approximately 40 minutes before they faced the world’s media, navigated a broad agenda, including the Middle East, without any major clash. Trump said they had “established a good connection” and predicted that Burnham would be a “great prime minister”. The warmth was striking. So, too, were some of the more surprising details of their discussions. 1. Even without the charm offensive, Trump liked Burnham better than Starmer In July, when Trump met Sir Keir Starmer at the Nato summit in Turkey after he had announced his resignation, the US President said he wanted to “bring him back” and “make him great again”, as The i Paper revealed last weekend. Two months on, that affection has evaporated. Asked about a special relationship that has been up and down, Trump said things were “more up than they were under your last prime minister.” The US President has long preferred leaders he sees as dealmakers, and he has decided that Burnham is one. “I think he’s a natural business person,” he said, adding that the pair had spoken “numerous times on the phone” before New York. “He gets it. He understands what he has to do.” 2. No Trump attack on UK migration policy This is the same US President who has said Britain is “on the edge of disaster” and “being invaded” because of “insane” immigration policies. However, in New York, he called it “a worldwide situation” and a problem “for many countries”. Instead of lecturing Britain, Trump talked about his own record, claiming 18 consecutive months with no illegal crossings into the US. For a Labour Prime Minister under pressure on small boats, being spared a public rebuke on his first outing is significant. Trump did not endorse Burnham’s approach. He simply chose not to make it the story. 3. Trump thinks Britain has ‘tremendous potential’ Trump has previously called the UK “essentially bankrupt” for refusing to fully exploit North Sea oil and for relying on green energy. He has also claimed the country is “dying” under mass migration. This time he said Britain had “tremendous potential” and compared it favourably with other countries whose leaders he meets but in which he sees little promise. Britain, he said, was “just waiting for success, waiting for good leadership”. 4. Burnham swerved a Trump rebuke over the West Bank Given the administration’s closeness to the Israeli Government, many expected Washington to condemn Britain’s sanctions on West Bank settlements. When asked directly, Trump did not engage. He said he did not know about the move, then turned to Burnham and asked whether he did, leaving the Prime Minister to answer. It was an odd moment, but a useful one for No 10. A US President who wanted to punish Britain had an open invitation to do so and passed it up. At the very least, it suggests the issue is not a priority for Trump, which gives Burnham more room than he might have expected on the issue. The verdict Burnham’s first meeting with Trump went better than he and his officials had likely feared. Warm words, however, are not agreements. Chagos is still a live issue, the cost-of-living crisis depends on events in the Gulf, and Trump’s goodwill has already shifted once this summer from Burnham’s predecessor to him. Although he has passed his first test, the relationship will be judged on what follows and how his own party feel about a seemingly cosy relationship with one of the most controversial US presidents.