For those who were carefully listening, Nigel Farage had an interesting message in his speech at the “Stars and Stripes Union Jack” party three days before the inauguration.
He told an audience of leading right-wing Brits, a GB News film crew and a plethora of Donald Trump supporters – including members of the incoming president’s trusted circle – that he believed he would win the next general election. But, he, added: “I just hope it happens while Donald Trump is still president.”
Trump’s presidency is set to run out in 2028, a year before Keir Starmer has to go to the country in the UK. So was it Farage optimism or was there something else at play? This was not just a piece of wishful thinking said in a vacuum, it reflected a virulent mood among Trump’s supporters and advisers.
Team Trump hates Starmer
The one thing that struck anybody having conversations with anyone involved in the Trump team, from lowly researchers to senior advisers, was the unanimity of hatred about Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government. There was no pretence, no attempt to hide it.
It is worth underlining that this goes well beyond a series of angry tweets from Elon Musk and is much more deep-rooted.
It may be that the decision by the bete noire Justin Trudeau to step down as prime minister of Canada has left a space for an international “socialist” hate figure which Keir Starmer has now filled.
Communist, Marxist, authoritarian, idiots, CCP (Chinese Community Party) puppets and other terms were trotted out with regular abandon. There was contempt for Starmer’s policies and worldview but most interestingly, there was a sense of pity for all the Britons they ran into.
“I’m so sorry for what’s happened to your country,” said one.
“Britain used to be great, we need to make it great again,” added another.
“What has happened to your country?” yet another asked.
And so it went on.
One hundred activists and the Prince of Darkness
For those close to Trump, the bad feeling dates back to the dinner he held for Starmer and foreign secretary David Lammy in New York and the sense of betrayal that, shortly after, Labour sent 100 activists across the Atlantic to campaign for Kamala Harris.
“Starmer, Lammy and Trump sat down for that dinner,” one source explained. “They make a lot about Lammy being given a second helping by Trump but all that does not matter because Labour then sent out activists to help Kamala Harris. Starmer had a terrible briefing saying Harris would win and his actions after undid any goodwill he may have had.”
But there is more to it. Since then, the handling of the race riots after the Southport murders was seen as “an attack on free speech”. The government is perceived as being “too close to China”, and now the issues around child grooming gangs and alleged “cover-ups” have been greeted with horror and disgust.
“Nobody believed such a thing could happen in Britain,” said one senior adviser to Trump about the grooming gangs. “It’s shocked everyone and makes Britain look like a backward country.”
What it all means is that Trump appears to have no qualms about humiliating Starmer, whether it is vetoing his Chagos Islands deal, being threatening about tariffs and the terms of a trade deal, deliberately not inviting British government representation to the inauguration or, most urgently, threatening to reject Lord Mandelson’s credentials as UK ambassador to the US.
Mandelson has become a genuine lightning rod of the toxic relationship between the White House and Downing Street because of his links with Jeffrey Epstein, China and the EU.
‘The British Trump’
A number of people connected to the Trump team have talked about “regime change” in the UK and specifically how to get a Trump-style prime minister into Downing Street. Such discussions seemed to lack an understanding of the British parliamentary system and the fact that Starmer has a huge majority for the next five years.
There were some fanciful musings about “crashing the British economy” to cause a crisis which would force the government out. Most of all, it was about looking at how Labour can be defeated. But here there is uncertainty and disagreement. After all, who is the British Trump?
For some, it is Farage and he was certainly playing up his strong connections with the administration. But the Reform UK leader was not invited into the Capitol Rotunda for the ceremony, unlike former PM Boris Johnson. And Elon Musk is not the only one to have doubts about whether Farage can carry off victory by himself.
Farage has important allies and cheerleaders, not least the 47th president of the United States, but also figures like Farage’s former aide and now highly influential Maga insider Raheem Kassam as well as Steve Bannon. The Reform UK leader also had a meeting at one of the parties the night before the inauguration with Trump and Musk which saw some rapprochement with the billionaire X boss.
There were high-profile Tories in town for the inauguration including Johnson, shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel, former PM Liz Truss and a number of peers. They clearly had their own links too and new vice-president JD Vance likes Kemi Badenoch greatly. But there is also very little appetite to help out the “not conservative Conservative Party”.
A number of those particularly interested in the future of the UK are looking at how to encourage Reform and the Tories to get together, in the belief that would be a winning ticket.
Is all lost for Starmer?
The answer to that is, certainly not. Not least because President Trump does have a soft spot for the UK thanks to his love of the Royal family and his mother growing up in Scotland.
Perhaps the prime minister will need to find a new ambassador (maybe former foreign secretary David Miliband) to appease Trump and if he pursues a trade deal, that may be taken as a sign that the Labour government wants a serious relationship.
Most of all they will need to pursue the unofficial policy already in place of using King Charles and Prince William to be the face of dealings with President Trump, as revealed by The Independent last month.
In the end, though, Trump will need allies to help with his agenda on Nato and Britain, even under Starmer, remains the most consistent voice in favour of higher defence spending.
However, as things stand, the mention of Starmer’s name to the Trump administration is more likely to induce thoughts on how to get him out of power sooner rather than later.
