‘Who won?” I ask the American ambassador. “The president, of course. I did not play very well and he’s a surprisingly good golfer. He played terrifically. He can drive; he can putt,” Warren Stephens replies. The two billionaires have just been playing five hours of golf on Donald Trump’s Turnberry course in Scotland. “The president and his son Eric beat my son, me and my son-in-law.”
You sound like the perfect diplomat, I tell him. His wife, Harriet, looking immaculate in a white dress on the sofa at Winfield House in Regent’s Park, central London, laughs. I suspect he could have beaten his opponent. The new American ambassador to the Court of St James’s says he likes bagpipes too and his butler has just delivered a pot of tea. “I love Britain,” he enunciates slowly, in an immaculate Southern drawl.
This old-school American’s manners are impeccable. He thinks our photographer has addressed him as, “Hey, dude,” across the marble hallway, when he actually said, “I’m Jude.” But the ambassador is amused: “I’m happy to be called dude.”
Nothing is too much trouble for the 68th ambassador. “My wife told me to change my tie for the photograph,” he says. It now matches the gold room perfectly. “Is there anything else you would like me to wear? Morning suit, top hat?”
The ambassador and his wife come from Little Rock, Arkansas, where he is the chairman, president and CEO of his family’s vast financial services firm, Stephens Inc, having taken over from his father and uncle and expanded the empire. He won’t say so himself, but his worth is estimated at $3.5 billion
(£2.6 billion) by Forbes and, like the president, he has his own exclusive golf course, the Alotian Club, in his home state.
Stephens accompanying Donald Trump as he arrives at Prestwick airport near Glasgow last month
GETTY IMAGES
Stephens on the sixth hole of the Alotian Club course in Arkansas, which he owns, in 2006
GETTY IMAGES
When he says he is bringing some of his own art to his new home, we’re talking about several stunning Cézannes, a wonderful Renoir and a Degas, which are now scattered around the residence. Above the drawing room mantelpiece is Monet’s Effet de soleil couchant sur la Seine à Port-Villez. It blends in perfectly with the wallpaper, he suggests. “It almost looks like it was commissioned for this room. My father started the collection — he had a great friendship with the executive director of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts and they worked on it together. He got some great pieces,” the ambassador explains.
While much of the couple’s own wealth has been spent on art, in particular abstract expressionists, and on philanthropy, Stephens also supported the president’s political campaigns and gave a $4 million donation towards Trump’s second inauguration galas and balls. So, it wasn’t a surprise when the now 47th president announced he was sending the megadonor to London.
After all, it’s going to be a Maga British summer. First, the president decided to holiday in Scotland at his golf club; next the vice-president, JD Vance, is staying in the Cotswolds. Usually, presidents prefer to head for a Guinness in Ireland. “I tell you, we have a very special relationship with the UK,” the ambassador says. “The president’s mother, of course, was from Tong in the Hebrides and while we were both in Scotland, he told me repeatedly that she came back every year. She had great respect and reverence for the Queen and some of that love has been passed on to him, which is why he invests so much here. It’s like a second home.”
That’s good to know when we are trying to secure a trade deal. What does the 68-year-old ambassador think of the old country? “Harriet’s family are from England, so we already feel a bond.” She explains her ancestry to me. “Captain William Farrar was one antecedent [he left England for Virginia in 1617]. We are also related to people from Stratford-on-Avon. My father was Scottish, from Luss, so I have stayed at Loch Lomond [Luss is on the loch’s west bank]. At some point, I want to do a roots trip.” The ambassador’s maternal family, meanwhile, were originally Swiss-German and his grandfather fought with the Allied Expeditionary Force in the First World War, so he also feels a bond.
Yet Vance didn’t sound particularly enamoured when talking about the UK recently. “I think he and his wife are pretty favourably inclined obviously, if they are bringing the family for a vacation over here,” the ambassador says tactfully. “The special relationship is possibly the strongest it’s been; historically, this is considered the top diplomatic job.”
‘Everyone likes dogs here’
The Stephenses are certainly loving their role. They have the second biggest garden in London after the King, helicopters can come and go and there’s enough room to practise your swing on the 12 acres of lawn. “We have a 15-year-old spaniel, Maynie, and she has a new lease of life,” the ambassador’s wife says. “Everyone likes dogs here,” says the ambassador. “I think they like dogs better than people, which I understand. So do I sometimes.” Even the weather has been perfect. “It’s been so warm and sunny you’re trying to make us feel like we’re in Arkansas.”
The ambassador presented his credentials as soon as he arrived in May. It was like a fairytale, he explains. “It was a thrill. Harriet and I drove to Buckingham Palace in a gilded carriage. The King was most gracious with his time. Frankly, I was nervous. We had rehearsed here with members of the royal staff, but he was so disarming. He was delightful.”
Presenting his credentials to the King, May 21
AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Being a Tottenham fan has helped. “When I met the foreign secretary [David Lammy], he said, ‘The prime minister will make you go to Arsenal, but we’ll slip off to a Tottenham game.’ I haven’t been to one yet. I have been to a soccer game, Manchester United v Leicester, a long time ago and I wanted to watch the Lionesses, but I was in Scotland with the president.” Ascot, Wimbledon, Trooping the Colour, the Open… They are doing “the season”, Harriet explains. “It’s been a busy summer. It never stops here. You must all be exhausted.”
The last ambassador went through four prime ministers in three years. But this ambassador, so far, has only had to contend with a fragmenting of the two-party system, the rise of Reform and the return of Jeremy Corbyn. “I read the British press every morning to be knowledgeable about issues, and if I want more details, I ask the embassy,” Stephens says. “I have met Kemi Badenoch, but just briefly, and I shook hands with Nigel Farage at a party. I have been with the PM several times.”
Stephens arrives in Downing Street ahead of his meeting with the prime minister in May
JAMES MANNING/PA WIRE
Having visited Britain frequently over the years for work and golf, does he feel it’s changed? “Your focus now is on immigration. What I see is what we have seen in our country. We certainly welcome legal immigration, but illegal immigration is another kettle of fish. It puts tremendous strain on the resources of any government, whether the US or UK. They are humans, but you just can’t have people wandering in and expecting state services — or, in your case, the national health system. That’s not doable. So, I think the PM is doing his best to find a humane way to stop them.”
Starmer could follow America’s example, he suggests. “The president ran on immigration. If you talk to anyone — and we have friends in Texas — it was reaching crisis point and pretty distressing. They had places down there they wouldn’t go.”
His wife interjects. “In some cases, they found immigrants dead on their property, frozen to death.”
‘Your energy costs are too high’
Energy is another problem, continues the Arkansas man who is used to oil drilling on his doorstep. “I have said to the PM, your electricity costs are four times as high as in the US. When he asked me what he needs to do to get more US investment into this country, I said, ‘Prime Minister, I wasn’t really going to go there in our first meeting, but since you asked, your energy costs are too high. You still have enormous fossil fuel potential not only in the North Sea, but there are big shale fields [a source of natural gas] on shore in Lincolnshire. And you buy gas from Norway and they get it from the North Sea. I am not against renewables, but you must use all your assets, because the 21st century is a big consumer of electricity with AI and data centres.”
Does he think the British have become too obsessed by net zero? “To me, yes. I don’t ever see a world where we are totally off fossil fuels. The US has met its Paris climate accord goals — we did it by switching from coal to natural gas. I don’t like these windmills — the president is right, they are unsightly and they do kill a lot of birds. We have them in our country, and I am not saying we dismantle them, but when we were in Nantucket last summer, fibreglass blades and pieces of fibreglass from windmills started washing up on the beach.”
The plight of British farmers also concerns him. “That would be very unpopular if you had to pay inheritance tax on your land in the US. As the president said, we’ve exempted them. The French farmers are pretty cross regularly; I can see why the British are now.”
We discuss the rise of populism in Europe. The ambassador is less gloomy about Britain than other countries on the continent. “This is a moment for populism around the world, and to some degree here. But it’s still Britain; you have things that simply aren’t done. You still queue very well.” We say sorry a lot, I suggest. “I haven’t noticed that. But Americans certainly don’t do that.”
Anything else that’s particularly British? “Some accents are easier to understand than others,” says Harriet. They both love the British sense of humour. “We’ve seen A Fish Called Wanda. We are, of course, huge fans of Downton Abbey.” They didn’t like Netflix’s The Diplomat about a sassy female American ambassador — too many kidnap plots and liaisons in the bushes. “We have been going to museums here with our grandchildren,” she continues. “I love that you don’t charge admission. We went to the Natural History Museum and I asked, ‘How much is it?’ They said it’s free. I was amazed.”
They also like the food. “We like Scott’s and the Ritz and we had a civilised Sunday lunch at the Goring hotel.” She then lists her favourite British designers: Erdem, Emilia Wickstead, plus the trenches at Burberry. “I love New York, but I feel London is the most vibrant city in the world now.”
Stephens and his extended family with the president in the Oval Office, April 30
JOYCE N. BOGHOSIAN/WHITE HOUSE
She explains that they honeymooned in Bath and London. “We saw Cats. We love musicals. We’ve been enough in the countryside to know how beautiful it is,” she says. The ambassador adds, “I have been with Californian friends on a shoot near Bristol. I’d like to do more shoots. I’ve only done grouse once — it’s mainly been pheasant and partridge. I have not been to Wales, which is on our bucket list. But I have been to Scotland and Northern Ireland several times and played on a lot of your golf courses.”
Harriet loves the gardens and the fact you can walk a dog on the golf courses. She also shoots occasionally. “I’ll take a peg once in a while. I hunt on horses, but not here. We go quail hunting in South Georgia with two dogs — it’s a family thing. We love it. Our children all shoot, our grandchildren are learning and our dog is a trained retriever.” They’re friends with Bill Clinton back home. “He is
from Arkansas, but I’m a Republican. President Clinton was very much a centrist, like Tony Blair. Clinton is a clever man, but the Democrats have drifted pretty far to the left.” She was a huge fan of Ronald Reagan.
Does the ambassador think the British are warming to President Trump a little more the second time round? “We have spent multiple times with him and he really is charming and funny. We haven’t met his wife, but we have been invited to the Oval Office. We came with our six grandchildren and three children and spouses. It was his 100th day and he was delayed. The grandchildren, aged one to eight, were racing round the office causing chaos. He was so unfazed. He opened his desk drawer and gave them all coins and showed them the American Declaration of Independence. You can tell he is a good grandfather; he has all his family photos. And the bust of Winston Churchill is back.”
Stephens doesn’t feel his role is to explain Britain to the president but to support him. “The president is perfectly clear what he thinks on all issues, and he’s very interested in the UK. The difference this time is that he’s had time out of the White House and he knew what he wanted to do — his team were ready to go and on message, which didn’t happen in the first administration. He is much more focused on overseas now too.”
The president, he believes, should be given the Nobel peace prize for all his work. “He has stopped five or six conflicts. I would be very pleased if he got it — he deserves it. He absolutely takes these wars to heart, the dying and the suffering in Ukraine and Gaza particularly, and he is determined to do something.”
Having watched the president and prime minister together, does he think the two countries’ foreign policies coincide? “I was in the room with them when they had their visit with the press [in Scotland] and they are both committed to finding a way to bring back the hostages in Gaza and get a ceasefire. The images are horrific; getting food and aid to these people must be a top priority.”
Stephens in the Oval Office with the president after his ambassadorial swearing-in ceremony
WHITE HOUSE
President Trump also said he believed President Putin wasn’t pulling his weight. “The president will have a great conversation with Putin, then go home and turn on the TV in the White House and watch the Russian hitting Kyiv retirement homes and hospitals with missiles. It’s indiscriminate — that’s not right.”
The culture wars, he thinks, are subsiding in both countries. “It was a problem. We have good friends who were great women athletes, and they were leading the charge against trans. You can’t put a biological male in a women’s swimming event — they’ll win. If they want to compete, they need their own category. The president just used common sense for the country. It was crazy.”
Does he feel that the culture wars have been replaced by class warfare in this country, with the introduction of VAT on private school fees and the government cracking down on non-doms? “A lot of millionaires are leaving,” he replies. His wife adds, “We have young friends who loved it here, but they are moving back to Arkansas because of the tax implications.”
The ambassador thinks these policies are ill advised. “In the US the top 10 per cent pay most of the income tax, so why do you want to run them out? You need people who are successful to invest in companies and in philanthropy. Texas has no income tax, and Tennessee; Arkansas has reduced its income tax too. You’ve got to compete.”
Advice from Peter Mandelson
Stephens has left his three children to look after the family affairs while he is overseas, but it is his business acumen that has built up the company, steering it through the financial crash in 2008. “I’d like to focus on finance here. The US and the UK, which is where most of the financial firms are, really ought to be interchangeable, meaning as closely aligned from a regulatory standpoint as possible. That would further strengthen the relationship between the two countries and would be a great asset to us all.”
His counterpart in Washington, Lord Mandelson, is, I suspect, jealous of the art collection, but has been helpful, his fellow ambassador says. “He has given us more advice than we gave him; he’s an old hand. When I asked him the proper attire for the King’s garden party, he said, ‘Morning suit. Don’t fool around.’ I’ve now worn my top hat three times.”
Warren and Harriet Stephens at Winfield House, Regent’s Park
JUDE EDGINTON FOR THE TIMES MAGAZINE
It’s the traditions they both love most. “We feel that way about our own country but it will be 250 years next July 4 when the Declaration of Independence was ratified — Britain has 500 years or more.”
They have been to Europe but prefer the UK. “We went to France for my 60th birthday for a military tour of the D-Day beaches and landings. British men like talking about the Second World War and I do too,” he says. “It’s one of my hobbies.” He has a favourite fact that he likes to tell military buffs. “Britain declared war on Japan after Pearl Harbor before we did. The president didn’t do so until the following day. I tell Americans there is no D-Day without Britain hanging on in 1940 and 1941. I don’t know what we would have done without them. I feel a sense of gratitude for sure.”
Before I go, they show me a wonderful painting by Pissarro of Kensington Gardens that has just been hung. “It’s rather appropriate, don’t you think?” Harriet says. President Trump will be coming over for his second state visit in September. There are new wardrobes to select, more worries over white tie, more art needed for the guest rooms.
• Why rich Americans are invading the Cotswolds
The Kardashians sipping tea in the Cotswolds, Eve Jobs’s marriage to an English showjumper, the Gates daughters admiring the swans, the Vances bringing their three children to eat scones — the US elite can’t get enough of Britain’s quaint, honey-coloured villages and rolling hills, I suggest, and they both agree. The Americans are back in style.
It feels more like an Edith Wharton novel set in the 1870s than 2025. This is old-fashioned glamour and decorum from the Gilded Age. “I would love to go to the Cotswolds,” says the ambassador’s wife. “You may get your wish,” her husband replies.