I hate to get ahead of myself, nevertheless it looks like Keir Starmer might need finally learnt the one language Trump understands.
For a decade now, leaders have faced Donald Trump with the identical tactic: smile, soothe, flatter, and hope he gets bored.
Treat him like a temperamental relative at Christmas dinner. Laugh off the weird comments. Change the topic. Anything to appease.
And for a decade now, it hasn’t worked. In failing to learn from their mistakes, leaders have taught Trump only one lesson: if he throws his weight around, the remaining of us will obligingly rearrange ourselves around his ego.
This week, in the end, we got a tantalising glimpse of an alternate reality.
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Opposition has consequences. When enough leaders resist together, Trump is forced to confront the fact of his own actions, and the bounds of his power.
On the invite-only Davos World Economic Forum summit, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech went viral because he called the moment out – ‘We’re within the midst of a rupture, not a transition,’ – reminding us that ‘nostalgia shouldn’t be a technique.’
Trump responded with bluster, taking swipes at Carney and insisting Canada needs to be ‘grateful’. These comments, along together with his general air of confusion and apparent inability to differentiate Greenland from Iceland, gave the distinct impression of a person flailing under pressure.
And the response was noteworthy, to say the least. For perhaps the primary time, the world was unintimidated, disinclined to yield to his latest hissy fit.
At a personal dinner, Trump’s Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, laid into Europe – and got booed. There was a chorus of jeers and a parade of walk-outs.
Lutnick tried to shrug it off. He may placed on a brave face but his authority (and ego) was undeniably dented.
To its credit, Europe has been clearer than Britain about consequences. Brussels openly – and pretty aggressively – discussed retaliation and sanctions, warning that it shouldn’t be afraid to fight economic coercion.
For its own part, Westminster selected to take a more cautious route. It probably must have come as no surprise, given the U-turns which have develop into a trademark of Labour’s tenure to this point (13 backtracks and counting, only for the record).
Frustration gave the impression to be mounting with every dithering equivocation.
But now, it looks like we would actually be making headway. We’ve been across the houses, but Starmer has finally began sounding like someone who understands Trump.
The tone shift has been undeniable. It began on the weekend, with Starmer slamming Trump’s tariff threats on allies as ‘completely fallacious’. It was as forceful an admonishment as we’ve ever seen from the PM.
Then, at Monday’s Downing Street press conference, Starmer spoke of ‘pragmatic, sensible and sustained’ solutions to the crisis, asserting the efficacy of ‘calm discussion’ over ‘gesture politics’.
There was talk of a trade war being in no person’s interests, however the blunt message of his address was simply this: Britain doesn’t do diplomacy by pressure.
He is correct. We’re proudly a rustic of respect, partnership and the rule of law – not supplicancy.
Then got here Westminster’s weekly pantomime: Prime Minister’s Questions.
But as an alternative of – or a minimum of along with – the same old slapstick, what we got felt like a small echo of Churchill’s ‘never give up’. Starmer hammered home the purpose: ‘Britain won’t yield’ on its principles and values.
He went on to accuse Trump of using the Chagos islands – a deal he once supported – as leverage to pressure Britain over Greenland, and refused.
‘He wants me to yield… I’m not going to.’
I assumed to myself, finally: the clearest sign yet that Britain won’t be rolled, bumped and pushed about. That is the moment where Trump’s pressure tactics get stared down with resistance, not grovelling.
And right on cue, The President blinked.
After days of noise about tariffs linked to Greenland, he began talking a couple of ‘framework’ and backing away from the threat.
Trump will frame this backpedalling ‘deal’ as forward momentum made on his terms, but let’s call it what it’s: capitulation.
That is the opening for Starmer, and it is larger than one news cycle.
For months, his premiership has looked prefer it is shrinking. The polls have sagged, his authority – despite commanding an awesome Commons majority – has taken hits, and the country has felt stuck in reactive mode.
This week finally offered a distinct version: clear, firm, and willing to carry a line.
And it was just this morning that we had the most recent deployment of the ‘treat ’em mean’ approach, with Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper RSVPing ‘not today’ to Trump’s Board of Peace invitation.
If we would like Britain back leading on the world stage, that is how. Not with nostalgia, and never with solo heroics. With Europe, with a backbone, and with the moral clarity we were once famed for.
That is the strongest avenue we’ve had yet to rebuild British credibility after a decade of drift.
Trump’s method relies on isolating targets and turning allies into servants one after the other, so each country negotiates alone with the most important bloke (some might say bully) within the room.
The antidote is coordinated pushback. Britain and Europe together could make him back down, repeatedly, until pressure stops paying.
Starmer must – in Labour’s own words – go further and faster. ‘Britain won’t yield’ must translate into practical solidarity with Denmark and Greenland’s right to decide on its future, coordinated economic planning with the EU, and customary messaging so Trump cannot play us off against one another.
This shouldn’t be harmless. Standing as much as Trump dents his ego, and if we’ve learnt anything, it’s that a bruised Trump doesn’t reflect or reconsider, he retaliates.
If he cannot get his way on Greenland this week, he’ll go trying to find one other goal next week. But this may’t be a matter of distraction being the most effective type of defence: resistance needs to be a relentless process, not a one-off performance.
What we’re seeing now could be the consequence of a coordinated technique of resistance.
Historically, the UK has been a world leader in resistance and determination. What happens in the approaching days, weeks and months will determine whether Westminster has the mettle to carry firm – to not be deferential in its diplomacy.
What stays to be seen is that if Starmer’s as much as the challenge.
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