“I am sure we can get along if he doesn’t try to give me too much soft soap,” Harry S Truman said of Winston Churchill. Soft soap (flattery) has been Britain’s lubricant for the “special relationship” since Churchill took office in 1940. It is also Sir Keir Starmer’s preferred balm, which is just as well because Donald Trump is no Truman. Flattery is mandatory with Trump, although it only gets you so far. Think of it as the entrance fee to a club that charges a bomb for the house soda.
Is that soda worth it? The question has arisen most urgently in countries like Canada and India, which are taking the worst of Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs and remain puzzled as to why. Britain was the first country to strike a trade deal with Trump and at the lowest tariff of 10 per cent. That in itself was a minor coup. Starmer might this week also get a tariff exemption on Scottish whisky. As ego massages go, Britain could feel vindicated in its tactics.
But there is something odd about a special relationship where dodging bullets counts as a win. Britain also seems to be in some confusion about the meaning of Trump’s anglophilia. Trump likes Britain in the same way that he seems to disdain Africa. Some countries are “shitholes” in Trump’s view and others are not. Britain appears to feature high up in the latter category.