Americano: how successful was Keir Starmer's visit to Washington?

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🗓️ 28 February 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

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Summary

Freddy is joined by The Spectator World’s deputy US editor, Kate Andrews, and The Telegraph columnist, Tim Stanley, to talk about Keir Starmer’s much-anticipated meeting with Donald Trump in Washington. Across the board, it has been read as a success – at least domestically, that is. The victories include movement on the Ukraine backstop, some positive discussions around the UK avoiding tariffs, and a second state visit is on the horizon as well. The biggest win, though, was the number of compliments that the president gave Starmer, including – puzzlingly – about his accent.

The Spectator World’s Ben Domenech secured an interview with Donald Trump after the Starmer meeting, in which he was similarly effusive about the PM: ‘I thought he was very good. I met him twice before – you know, he came to see me twice before – but this time was the best. And I think we got along very well.’ You can find more from that interview on The Spectator World website.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Spectator magazine is home to wonderful writing, insightful analysis and unrivaled books and arts reviews.
0:05.1	Subscribe today for just £12 and receive a 12 week subscription in print and online,
0:09.3	along with a free £20, John Lewis or Waitrose Voucher. Go to spectator.com. UK forward slash voucher.
0:20.2	Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American politics, power and prejudices.
0:29.7	It is 2025 and Donald Trump is president once again of the United States.
0:36.2	We will, of course, be following the moves of the Donald
0:39.3	and his second administration very closely.
0:42.9	However, it won't just be politics for us this year.
0:45.6	We'll also talk a lot and cover American culture, life and the arts.
0:51.2	I should also remind you, because my producer, Natasha Natasha will not let me hear the end of it,
0:56.2	that we are on Spectator TV. So head to our YouTube channel to watch that. Hello and welcome to
1:03.6	the Americano show. Today we're going to be talking about Kirstama's visit to Washington, which happened last night, if we're on UK time,
1:14.3	which we are here in London. I am joined by Kate Andrews, who is our US deputy editor,
1:21.2	and by the telegraphs Tim Stanley to discuss. Tim, I'll start with you. Labor, the government, seem pretty pleased with how
1:29.8	things went. They got what they wanted. How right are they to be chuffed? They should be pleased.
1:37.4	I think we can credit some of this to Stama's style, but none of it is a surprise. I want to begin by
1:44.0	commending your performance on question time, Freddie.
1:46.6	It's an example of the kind of commentary we need on Trump versus the kind of commentary that we get.
1:51.8	If you watch that program, you had one liberal commentator claiming that when Trump says jump,
1:57.5	Stama says higher, and as you rightly said, all Britain has done is raise its
2:01.4	defence spending to 2.5%. And there was another commentator on the panel who said that he
2:06.1	predicts that in the future, Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin will form an axis that
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