STEVE HILTON: Imagine Trump's first meeting with the man who thought a woman could have a penis
Picture the scene: the White House, Washington DC. The first meeting between the new President and the new Prime Minister. The north London human rights lawyer who can’t tell you whether various intimate body parts belong to a woman or a man, shaking hands with the former New York real estate billionaire who most definitely has no such problem.
How will Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer deal with Donald Trump, the likely 47th US President if Joe Biden insists on standing?
On the surface, the two men could not be more different.
Aside from Starmer not saying if a woman can have a penis, on a range of policy areas – from taxes to fossil fuels and climate change – the gulf between him and Trump is as wide as the Atlantic.
But beyond such differences, if he bothers to take Trump seriously, and avoids the kind of misinformed, patronising, sanctimonious grandstanding that characterises most British commentary about Trump, Starmer might find he has more in common with his US counterpart than he probably thinks.
The new Prime Minister all smiles as he visited Duchess Chine 1888 Ltd in June 2024
Donald Trump waving his finger in the sky as he arrives at Trump Tower in New York City on May 30, 2024
Trump is far from the media caricature of an ignorant, boorish bully.
For example, Trump’s attitudes on social issues are in many ways closer to Starmer’s than to many on the Right. He was the first US president elected as a public supporter of gay marriage, and in his professional life he has had a perhaps surprising commitment to gender equality.
Whether as a real estate tycoon, or in the White House, Trump has made a habit of promoting women to senior positions – with a top team far more diverse than anything you would find in corporate America.
In 2019, he said it was a great sign of progress in America that a gay politician, namely Pete Buttigieg, could run for president, with his husband forming a central part of his campaign in the 2020 Democratic primaries.
Starmer might also find common ground over his plans to build housing and infrastructure – an obsession of Trump, who made his fortune as a builder.
One of the trickiest policy issues affecting US/UK relations, though, is trade.
Trump’s views can be summed up in one word: reciprocity. Offer proposals that treat America fairly, and Trump will respond in kind. Try to sneak in anything that smacks of a ‘rip-off’ and Trump will reject the deal. Trump is a pragmatist, not an ideologue – driven by a simple determination to ‘put America first’.
Starmer would be advised to drop his ideological obsessions and engage with Trump on a pragmatic basis.
One area where he can certainly make a connection is anti-Semitism. Trump will appreciate the directness with which Starmer took on the anti-Semites in the Labour Party, a sharp contrast with the pathetic weakness of Biden and the leadership of the Democratic Party.
The new Prime Minister sitting between now deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner (left) and his wife Victoria Starmer (left) on Thursday
Trump delivering a speech at the 'People's Convention' of Turning Point Action in Detroit on June 15
Having interviewed him twice at the White House, I’ve found Trump to be curious, open-minded and fanatical about policy detail.
He seeks and absorbs information, asking people what they think about every conceivable topic.
He’s just as likely to take advice from the bartender at one of his resorts as from a billionaire sitting next to him at dinner.
If Starmer walks into a meeting in the Oval Office and lectures Trump on human rights or climate change, he will get nowhere. Starmer should behave (if he can!) as a normal human being rather than a politician.
As president, Barack Obama had no time for the much-vaunted US/UK ‘special relationship’. There will be no such prickliness with Trump. He has a particular fondness for Britain. He owns a hotel and golf course in Scotland, loves London and holds a deep reverence for the late Queen.
The new Prime Minister gesturing during his final day of lengthy campaigning ahead of his 'loveless' landslide victory on Friday morning
The former President participating in a heated debate against Joe Biden at the CNN studios on June 27
If he has any sense, Starmer will tell Trump how he went from being an arch republican to a supporter of Her Majesty and the monarchy. Trump would find that fascinating.
It’s easy to assume that the bloviating human rights lawyer-turned-politician and the brash billionaire-turned-reality TV star would struggle to get along. But I’m not so sure.
Who knows, they might even forge an unlikely friendship, in the vein of George W. Bush and Tony Blair.
Although, considering how that turned out – not least following the calamitous invasion of Iraq – perhaps an arm’s length relationship is best after all.
Trump gets a hero's welcome at the Republican convention: Former president greets cheering fans with a bandage on his ear just two days after assassination attempt
