{"id":417669,"date":"2025-09-12T05:38:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T05:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/417669\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T05:38:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T05:38:23","slug":"how-the-epstein-scandal-claimed-britains-prince-of-darkness-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/417669\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Epstein scandal claimed Britain\u2019s \u2018Prince of Darkness\u2019 \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>First he quit as trade and industry secretary over an undeclared loan he took from a wealthy colleague to buy a London house. Mandelson was later invited back as Northern Ireland secretary only to quit again after it became known he had intervened on behalf of a billionaire Indian-born businessman who was seeking British citizenship.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike others before him, when his name was first mentioned in connection with the job of ambassador, it came with a string of associations \u2014 center-left Europhile, champion of globalism and friend of China \u2014 none of which seemed likely to endear him to Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In addition, he was a \u201cmain character\u201d of British politics: A recognizable name who attracts the buzz of gossip emanating from both firm supporters and sworn enemies \u2014 supposedly the sort of thing Starmer hates most about Westminster, with his lawyerly<strong> <\/strong>disdain for intrigue and personality politics.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/299930-1024x675.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7148808\"  \/>Mandelson was forced to resign from the Blair Cabinet \u2014 twice \u2014 over his connections to powerful figures with money.\u00a0| Martyn Hayhow\/EPA<\/p>\n<p>Despite the factors counting against him, Mandelson appeared to make real gains and got himself on the right side of Trump.\u00a0 The ambassador made a concerted effort to reach his toughest audience, the MAGA diehards, by courting outriders individually and visiting the popular<strong> <\/strong>right-wing Capitol Hill<strong> <\/strong>hangout Butterworth\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>As Peter Westmacott, former British ambassador in Washington, put it to POLITICO back in July: \u201cWith Donald Trump in the White House, the ambassador also has to be known to and appreciated by the president. So far, Lord Mandelson seems to have got that just right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was by no means a simple relationship. Trump has been heard to describe Mandelson as \u201ca sneaky guy,\u201d according to one official present during conversations with the president. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First he quit as trade and industry secretary over an undeclared loan he took from a wealthy colleague&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,1193,32,393,4884,1815,807,1144,28300,712,16,15,1764,335],"class_list":{"0":"post-417669","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-british-politics","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-israel-hamas-war","16":"tag-keir-starmer","17":"tag-northern-ireland","18":"tag-peter-mandelson","19":"tag-scotland","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom","22":"tag-wales","23":"tag-war-in-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115189717756193686","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}