'All doors have shut' for Trump as Europe’s rejection leaves him 'isolated and enraged'
President Donald Trump's conduct has reportedly "cratered" one the most important U.S. alliances, according to the New York Times, with advisors urging "fed up" U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer to ditch the "special relationship" between the two countries.
In a report released on Friday, the Times said that Starmer is "looking to diversify his friend group" as Trump makes the U.S. "into an increasingly grumpy and unreliable partner for Britain." This was evident in a Thursday trip to Saudi Arabia, where he pledged "to show that we stand with our allies" in the Gulf states, only interacting with Trump near the end of the trip.
"That was no accident," Michael D. Shear, the lead U.K. correspondent for the Times, wrote. "Mr. Starmer’s new approach, which follows almost a year in which he repeatedly tried to cozy up to Mr. Trump, is part of a broader strategy to move Britain closer to partners in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere as the relationship with the United States sours."
Despite his efforts to be "chummy" with Trump, the U.S. president has engaged in "repeated taunts and mockery" towards the U.K. This has led Starmer to alter his approach, taking a firmer stance against Trump and refusing to get involved in the Iran conflict
"I'm fed up," Starmer said in a Thursday interview, making a rare reference to Trump by name when he blamed spikes in energy costs for U.K. residents on "the actions of Putin or Trump across the world.”
In the same interview, Starmer reserved particular outrage for Trump's widely condemned Easter weekend Truth Social post threatening to wipe Iran's "whole civilization" if peace terms were not accepted soon.
“Let me be really clear about this,” the prime minister said, “They are not words I would use — ever use — because I come at this with our British values and principles.”
Peter Ricketts, "a veteran British diplomat who served as the country’s first national security adviser," also weighed in on the fraying "special relationship" this week, encouraging Starmer to outright abandon reliance on the U.S. and expand relations with Europe.
“We do have to rethink the idea that the U.S. is a reliable, trustworthy ally on which we can depend in the longer term,” Ricketts told BBC Radio. “We’ve got to get closer to the Europeans. We’ve got to work out how we live in a world where American interest has moved away from Europe.”