Source: Breitbart | VIEW ORIGINAL POST ==>
President Trump hailed the “wonderful” United Kingdom as he received an invitation for an unprecedented second state visit to the United Kingdom, the first world leader to ever be extended this courtesy.
President Donald Trump met the UK’s Sir Keir Starmer on the steps of the White House on Thursday afternoon — confirming the calculated snub to France’s President Macron two days ago, who wasn’t greeted by Trump on his arrival — and praising the “special” UK leader.
Seated in the Oval Office for brief remarks to cameras before their talks began, Trump gave rare effusive praise to a European leader, saying: “It’s a great honour to have Prime Minister Starmer at the Oval Office. It’s a very special place and he’s a special man – and the United Kingdom is a wonderful country that I know very well, I’m there a lot.”
Trump continued: “We’ve had a tremendous relationship and, frankly, the prime minister and I have met twice before, and we get along very famously, as you would say, and I look forward to it very much.”
The comments underline, perhaps, the goodwill between the men generated by the UK’s left-wing government’s recent charm offensive on Trump to overcome the very negative comments made about him by practically every member of the ruling Labour Party before they got into power. Further, Starmer’s announcement this week he would be boosting UK defence spending, answering a key Trump demand to European nations, generated positive headlines the President will likely have noticed, even if the actual increase is paltry.
The President said the pair would be “discussing many things today, we’re going to be discussing Russia-Ukraine, we’ll be discussing trade and lots of other items, and I think we can say we are going to be getting along on every one of them.”
Responding to the President, the UK Prime Minister handed him a letter from the King, Charles III, which formally invited Trump back to the United Kingdom for a second state visit. While a state visit — the most formal welcome the United Kingdom can give to a world leader, officially hosted by the monarch and including a banquet at Buckingham Palace– is a standard honour given by Britain, President Trump will be unique in having been invited twice, after all he’s the only leader to ever be asked more than once.
The reasons for this are diverse: Trump is a two-term President, his last presidency was during a UK Conservative government, and under the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. But at the heart of it, no doubt, is the simple fact the British government sees flatting President Trump as a key foreign policy objective.
It wasn’t all smiles, though. Vice President JD Vance, something of an ad hoc emisary to Europe on behalf of President Trump, pointed out to Prime Minister Starmer that the United Kingdom presently has some problems with freedom of speech. This is undeniably true, even if the UK’s state broadcaster the BBC bristled at the suggestion, stating dismissively he said this “without evidencing his claim”.
The Prime Minister brushed the criticism aside, responding “We’ve had free speech for a very long time in the UK”.
This story is developing, more follows
