Say what you like about Donald Trump, but the man certainly knows how to control a room. Unlike British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who seemed ever inch out of his depth in today’s joint press conference, which wrapped up Trump’s official state visit.
In the red corner, Trump came out swinging like a big, bluff and bombastic Yankee bull. In. In the blue corner, Starmer looked both deflated and defeated before a punch had been thrown. At one point, Trump even silenced him by announcing, “That’s enough!” Before getting on the mic to put things right.
Both the President and Prime Minister stood behind podiums with the words “Tech Prosperity Deal” emblazoned upon them. Yet, whereas Trump looked like a man with a plan and a can-do attitude, Starmer looked like a malfunctioning robot, desperately waiting for his handler to rewire his circuits.
The Daily Mail reports that at first Starmer appeared to welcome Trump’s lament that Putin had “let me down, he’s really let me down,” after the British Prime Minister said that Putin’s strikes on Ukraine were “not the actions of someone who wants peace.”
However, the man from Downing Street was less keen to hear the American President criticise the UK government’s plans to recognise a Palestinian state and Trump’s concerns that free speech was becoming a thing of the past in Great Britain.
Things took a turn for the worse when the debate turned to the UK’s illegal immigration problem.
After warning that illegal immigration “destroys countries from within,” Trump reflected on the situation once faced by America and said, “What I saw happening, with millions of people pouring into our country, I couldn’t stand to watch it, and we’ve done a great job.’
“‘The last three months we had zero – from millions of people a year ago, we had zero people enter our country illegally.
Trump added, “’I think your situation is very similar. You have people coming in, and I told the Prime Minister I would stop it, and it doesn’t matter if you call out the military, it doesn’t matter what means you use.
‘It destroys countries from within, and we’re actually now removing a lot of the people that came into our country.”
Throughout the duration of the press conference, it was very clear to see who was in charge and who was just making up the numbers.
Starmer had little to say, but Trump was, as usual, more than happy to pontificate on every subject under the sun.
When Starmer did speak, he kept to the corporate script, made no effort to defend any of his policies, and slowly disappeared into a pile of platitudes.
Starmer explained, “This historic second state visit is a moment to celebrate the unique bond between our two countries.
“But today, we’ve gone far beyond that. We’ve renewed the special relationship for a new era.
“The United Kingdom, the United States stand together today as first partners on defence, first partners in trade – with the groundbreaking deal we struck in May – and now, with a new agreement that we’ve just signed this afternoon, we’re confirming our status as the first partners in science and technology ready to define this century together just as we did the last.”
That sound you can hear is the world yawning.
