{"id":99417,"date":"2025-07-28T13:05:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T13:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/99417\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T13:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T13:05:09","slug":"trump-and-starmer-meet-in-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/99417\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump and Starmer meet in Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> once suggested his golf course in Scotland<\/a> \u201cfurthers\u201d the U.S.-U.K. relationship. <\/p>\n

Now he\u2019s getting the chance to prove it.<\/p>\n

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer<\/a> arrived Monday for a meeting with Trump at a golf course owned by the president\u2019s family near Turnberry in southwestern Scotland. Starmer and his wife, Victoria, lingered on the steps chatting at length with the president, who pointed proudly to parts of the property. <\/p>\n

Later, the leaders will be at Abderdeen, on the country\u2019s northeast coast, where there\u2019s another Trump golf course and a third is opening soon. <\/p>\n

During his first term in 2019, Trump posted of his Turnberry property, \u201cVery proud of perhaps the greatest golf course anywhere in the world. Also, furthers U.K. relationship!\u201d Starmer is not a golfer, but toggling between Trump\u2019s Scottish courses shows the outsized influence the president puts on properties bearing his name \u2014 and on golf\u2019s ability to shape geopolitics<\/a>. <\/p>\n

However, even as Trump may want to focus on showing off his golf properties, Starmer will try to center the conversation on more urgent global matters. He plans to urge Trump to press Israel to allow more aid into Gaza<\/a> and attempt to end what Downing St. called \u201cthe unspeakable suffering and starvation\u201d in the territory, while pushing for a ceasefire in Israel\u2019s war with Hamas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Britain, along with France and Germany, has criticized Israel for \u201cwithholding essential humanitarian assistance\u201d as hunger spread in Gaza. Over the weekend, Starmer said Britain will take part in efforts led by Jordan to airdrop aid after Israel temporarily eased restrictions.<\/p>\n

But British Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds acknowledged Monday that only the U.S. has \u201cthe leverage\u201d to make a real difference in the conflict.<\/p>\n

Entering Monday\u2019s meeting, Trump said \u201cthere are a lot of starving people\u201d in Gaza and said he and Starmer would be talking about it. Pressed on if mass starvation was occurring there, the Republican U.S. president said, \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d but he suggested what he\u2019d seen on television indicated it might be. <\/p>\n

\u201cThose children look very hungry,\u201d Trump said. <\/p>\n

That was more empathy than Trump showed about the crisis in Gaza on Sunday night, when he was focused more on how he\u2019s not personally gotten credit for previous attempts to provide food aid.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s terrible. You really at least want to have somebody say, \u2018Thank you,\u2019\u201d Trump said. <\/p>\n

The president added, \u201cIt makes you feel a little bad when you do that\u201d without what he considered proper acknowledgement. <\/p>\n

Starmer is under pressure from his Labour Party lawmakers to follow France in recognizing a Palestinian state, a move both Israel and the U.S. have condemned. The British leader says the U.K. supports statehood for the Palestinians but that it must be \u201cpart of a wider plan\u201d for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. <\/p>\n

Also on Monday\u2019s agenda, according to Starmer\u2019s office, are efforts to promote a possible peace deal to end fighting in Russia\u2019s war with Ukraine<\/a> \u2014 particularly efforts at forcing Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table in the next 50 days. <\/p>\n

Trump in the past sharply criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for also failing to express enough public gratitude toward U.S. support for his country, taking a similar tack he\u2019s now adopting when it comes to aid for Gaza. The president, though, has shifted away from that tone and more sharply criticized Putin and Russia in recent weeks. <\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Trump will be at the site of his new course near Aberdeen<\/a> for an official ribbon-cutting. It opens to the public on Aug. 13 and tee times are already for sale \u2014 with the course betting that a presidential visit can help boost sales. <\/p>\n

Protesters have planned a demonstration in Balmedie, near Trump\u2019s existing Aberdeen golf course, after demonstrators took to the streets across Scotland on Saturday to decry the president\u2019s visit while he was golfing<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Starmer and Trump are likely to find more common ground on trade issues. <\/p>\n

While China initially responded to Trump\u2019s tariff threats by retaliating with high import taxes<\/a> of its own on U.S. goods, it has since begun negotiating to ease trade tensions. Starmer and his country have taken a far softer approach. He\u2019s gone out of his way to work with Trump, flattering the president repeatedly during a February visit to the White House, and teaming up to announce a joint trade framework<\/a> on tariffs for some key products in May. <\/p>\n

Starmer and Trump then signed a trade agreement<\/a> during the G7 summit in Canada that freed the U.K.’s aerospace sector from U.S. tariffs and used quotas to reduce them on auto-related industries from 25% to 10% while increasing the amount of U.S. beef it pledged to import. <\/p>\n

Discussions with Starmer follow a Trump meeting Sunday with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen at his Turnberry course. They announced a trade framework<\/a> that will put 15% tariffs on most goods from both countries, though many major details remain pending. <\/p>\n

The president has for months railed against yawning U.S. trade deficits around the globe and sees tariffs as a way to try and close them in a hurry. But the U.S. ran an $11.4 billion trade surplus with Britain last year, meaning it exported more to the U.K. than it imported. Census Bureau figures this year indicate that the surplus could grow.<\/p>\n

There are still lingering U.S.-Britain trade issues that need fine-tuning. The deal framework from May said British steel would enter the U.S. duty-free, but it continues to face a 25% levy. <\/p>\n

U.K. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said Monday that \u201cnegotiations have been going on on a daily basis\u201d and \u201cthere\u2019s a few issues to push a little bit further today,\u201d though he downplayed expectations of a resolution.<\/p>\n

Upon going into the meeting, Trump said \u201cwe\u2019re in great shape\u201d and called the U.S.-U.K. relationship \u201cunparalleled.\u201d <\/p>\n

The leader of Scotland, meanwhile, said he will urge Trump to lift the current 10% tariff on Scotch whisky. First Minister John Swinney said the spirit\u2019s \u201cuniqueness\u201d justified an exemption.<\/p>\n

Even as some trade details linger and both leaders grapple with increasingly difficult choices in Gaza and Ukraine, however, Starmer\u2019s staying on Trump\u2019s good side appears to be working \u2014 at least so far. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.K. is very well-protected. You know why? Because I like them \u2014 that\u2019s their ultimate protection,\u201d Trump said during the G7. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump once suggested his golf course in Scotland \u201cfurthers\u201d the U.S.-U.K.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":99418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[69,4528,70,4526,57,4527,3497,3464,13790,99,373,60437,65047,17723,50,9598,80,3657,6313,16618,376,4338,2856,274,3656,96,93,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-99417","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-foreign-aid","10":"tag-gaza","11":"tag-gaza-strip","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-hamas","14":"tag-humanitarian-crises","15":"tag-international-agreements","16":"tag-international-trade","17":"tag-israel","18":"tag-israel-hamas-war","19":"tag-john-swinney","20":"tag-jonathan-reynolds","21":"tag-keir-starmer","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-palestinian-territories-government","24":"tag-politics","25":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","26":"tag-scotland","27":"tag-tariffs-and-global-trade","28":"tag-united-kingdom","29":"tag-united-kingdom-government","30":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","31":"tag-vladimir-putin","32":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","33":"tag-war-and-unrest","34":"tag-washington-news","35":"tag-world","36":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114931009047665777","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}