She played a key role in recent interactions between Trump and the British government before Starmer was elected, and helped secure a phone call between the new PM and Trump after the latter was shot in July in the first of two assassination attempts.
Piercing insight
Pierce is aided by Senay Bulbul, a political counsellor at the embassy. Two people with knowledge of the operation say Bulbul was instrumental to making in-roads into Trump’s team, which led to a dinner for Starmer and Lammy at Trump Tower as they attended the UN General Assembly in New York in September.
When the previous government led by Rishi Sunak moved to install outgoing U.K. national security adviser Tim Barrow as Pierce’s successor, Pierce resisted the change and ultimately got her way, according to two people involved in the process.
She is contracted to remain in Washington until early next year, but given the outcome of the election there are now high expectations she may stay in post for longer to aid relations with the Trump administration. A lengthy formal extension would be unusual, however.
Oft-mooted plans to install a political ally of Starmer, such as former Tony Blair lieutenants Peter Mandelson or David Miliband, remain on the table but will be more complicated minus Harris in the White House.
Alternates are hard to identify. Many Labour politicians were once disobliging about Trump, while the U.K.’s previous ambassador, Kim Darroch, resigned in 2019 over leaked cables in which he called the first Trump administration “inept.” No. 10 will be keen to avoid offending the president all over again.
