One U.K. government official said Britain’s recent commitments to increase defense spending put Starmer in a better position to convince Trump to provide Ukraine with more support, which means he can serve as a bridge to the other leaders at this G7.
“It’s intensely personal with Trump. He likes to make deals one-on-one and so that personal relationship is key,” they added.
However, Starmer is not the only European leader around the G7 table to claim this mantle.
Keir Starmer’s team fancy their man as the foremost Donald Trump whisperer at this week’s G7 summit in Kananaskis, Canada. | Pool Photo by Jaimi Joy via EPA
French President Emmanuel Macron has been dealing with Trump for the best part of a decade and fancies himself as Europe’s most senior politician. Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, meanwhile, sees herself as ideologically aligned with Trump and has deep connections to his MAGA ecosystem.
Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton said that “in Trump’s mind, international relations are seen through the prism of the personal relations of the country’s leaders.”
“If you go back to 2017, 2018, 2019, the thing everybody watched was the Macron-Trump handshake,” he said.