In return, the British government has banked some apparent successes, including a deal for lower tariffs on some U.K. exports and Trump’s description of Starmer as a “good man.”
While state visits are always the subject of a painstaking planning operation, this one has been given even more care and attention, as No. 10 is keenly aware of what it has to lose.
A former aide to No.10 said: “We made big early wins in our relationship with the White House — and they were real wins — but we have to press that home now.”
Preparations began as soon as Trump accepted the invitation for the state visit in February, led by Buckingham Palace and military officials on the ceremonial side, with the civil service and government coordinating the policy side.
Peter Ricketts, a former ambassador and U.K. national security adviser, said: “Because the Trump presidency is hyper personalized — the view of the president at any particular time is so important — there is a lot of benefit in exposing him to the most high-impact, the most powerful expression of Britain that we can do.”
“Sleepless nights”
Careful coordination is all the more important this time round, not only because of the president’s propensity to go off script but because his visit coincides with a particularly nightmarish stretch for the British PM.