President Donald Trump once suggested his golf course in Scotland “furthers” the U.S.-U.K. relationship. Now he’s getting the possibility to prove it.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is meeting Monday with Trump at a golf property owned by the president’s family near Turnberry in southwestern Scotland — then later traveling to Abderdeen, on the country’s northeast coast, where there’s one other Trump golf course and a 3rd is opening soon.
During his first term in 2019, Trump posted of his Turnberry property, “Very happy with perhaps the best golf course anywhere on the planet. Also, furthers U.K. relationship!” Starmer is just not a golfer, but toggling between Trump’s Scottish courses shows the outsized influence the president puts on properties bearing his name — and on golf’s ability to shape geopolitics.
Nonetheless, at the same time as Trump should want to deal with showing off his golf properties, Starmer will attempt to center the conversation on more urgent global matters. He plans to induce Trump to press Israel to permit more aid into Gaza and try to end what Downing St. called “the unspeakable suffering and starvation” within the territory, while pushing for a ceasefire in Israel’s conflict with Hamas.
Britain, together with France and Germany, has criticized Israel for “withholding essential humanitarian assistance” as hunger spread in Gaza. Over the weekend, Starmer said Britain will participate in efforts led by Jordan to airdrop aid after Israel temporarily eased restrictions.
But British Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds acknowledged Monday that only the U.S. has “the leverage” to make an actual difference within the conflict.
Still, asked in regards to the crisis in Gaza on Sunday night, Trump was largely dismissive — focused more on how he’s not personally gotten credit for previous attempts to offer food aid.
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“It’s terrible. You actually at the least wish to have any individual say, ‘Thanks,’” Trump said.
The president added, “It makes you are feeling a bit of bad whenever you do this” without what he considered proper acknowledgement.
Starmer is under pressure from his Labour Party lawmakers to follow France in recognizing a Palestinian state, a move each Israel and the U.S. have condemned. The British leader says the U.K. supports statehood for the Palestinians but that it have to be “a part of a wider plan” for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Also on Monday’s agenda, in keeping with Starmer’s office, are efforts to advertise a possible peace deal to finish fighting in Russia’s conflict with Ukraine — particularly efforts at forcing Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table in the subsequent 50 days.
Trump prior to now sharply criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for also failing to specific enough public gratitude toward U.S. support for his country, taking an identical tack he’s now adopting in the case of aid for Gaza. The president, though, has shifted away from that tone and more sharply criticized Putin and Russia in recent weeks.
On Tuesday, Trump might be at the location of his recent course near Aberdeen for an official ribbon-cutting. It opens to the general public on Aug. 13 and tee times are already on the market — with the course betting that a presidential visit may help boost sales.
Protesters have planned an indication in Balmedie, near Trump’s existing Aberdeen golf course, after demonstrators took to the streets across Scotland on Saturday to decry the president’s visit while he was golfing.
Starmer and Trump are prone to find more common ground on trade issues.
While China initially responded to Trump’s tariff threats by retaliating with high import taxes of its own on U.S. goods, it has since begun negotiating to ease trade tensions. Starmer and his country have taken a far softer approach. He’s gone out of his method to work with Trump, flattering the president repeatedly during a February visit to the White House, and teaming as much as announce a joint trade framework on tariffs for some key products in May.
Starmer and Trump then signed a trade agreement throughout the G7 summit in Canada that freed the U.K.’s aerospace sector from U.S. tariffs and used quotas to cut back them on auto-related industries from 25% to 10% while increasing the quantity of U.S. beef it pledged to import.
Discussions with Starmer follow a Trump meeting Sunday with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen at his Turnberry course. They announced a trade framework that can put 15% tariffs on most goods from each countries, though many major details remain pending.
The president has for months railed against yawning U.S. trade deficits across the globe and sees tariffs as a method to try to close them in a rush. However the U.S. ran an $11.4 billion trade surplus with Britain last yr, meaning it exported more to the U.K. than it imported. Census Bureau figures this yr indicate that the excess could grow.
There are still lingering U.S.-Britain trade issues that need fine-tuning. The deal framework from May said British steel would enter the U.S. duty-free, but it surely continues to face a 25% levy.
U.K. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said Monday that “negotiations have been occurring each day” and “there’s just a few issues to push a bit of bit further today,” though he downplayed expectations of a resolution.
The leader of Scotland, meanwhile, said he’ll urge Trump to lift the present 10% tariff on Scotch whisky. First Minister John Swinney said the spirit’s “uniqueness” justified an exemption.
At the same time as some trade details linger and each leaders grapple with increasingly difficult selections in Gaza and Ukraine, nonetheless, Starmer’s staying on Trump’s good side appears to be working — at the least thus far.
“The U.K. could be very well-protected. You understand why? Because I like them — that’s their ultimate protection,” Trump said throughout the G7.
—Associated Press author Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.
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