President Trump wrapped up his U.Okay. summit Thursday. Did he get all the pieces he needed out of the conferences?
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
From NPR Information, that is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I am Ari Shapiro in Washington.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
And I am Mary Louise Kelly in London, the place we have now been monitoring President Trump’s U.Okay. go to, which simply wrapped up. The Brits laid on the pageantry…
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KELLY: …And the protests.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: Say it loud. Say it clear. Donald Trump not welcome right here.
KELLY: However at this time, the ultimate day of the journey, was all enterprise. The president traveled to U.Okay. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s nation dwelling, Chequers. At a joint press convention, each the president and the PM asserted that the state of the particular relationship is robust.
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PRIME MINISTER KEIR STARMER: This historic second state go to is a second to have a good time the distinctive bond between our two nations.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We’re eternally joined, and we’re eternally mates, and we’ll at all times be mates.
KELLY: Trump and Starmer each spoke of their want for peace in Ukraine and of their lack of religion in Russian President Vladimir Putin to finish the battle.
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TRUMP: He is let me down. He is actually let me down.
STARMER: In latest days, Putin has proven his true face, mounting the most important assault because the invasion started.
KELLY: However they didn’t see eye to eye on each problem, together with Palestinian statehood.
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STARMER: It is a part of that general package deal, which hopefully takes us from the appalling scenario we’re in now to the end result of a secure and safe Israel, which we shouldn’t have, and a viable Palestinian state.
TRUMP: So I’ve a disagreement with the prime minister on that rating, one among our few disagreements, really.
KELLY: The daylight between the U.S. and the U.Okay. was one thing I talked by with NPR’s Danielle Kurtzleben, a part of the White Home pool touring with President Trump. I caught her simply as she was leaving the press convention.
Hey there, Danielle.
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DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Hey there. You may hear a helicopter behind me. That is how you already know that is actual (laughter).
KELLY: Yeah, inform me the place you might be. What is the scene?
KURTZLEBEN: Effectively, I’m exterior of Chequers. That’s the prime minister’s nation residence. That’s the place we simply watched that press convention between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Keir Starmer. And proper now, the press pool is simply ready (inaudible) subsequent transfer.
KELLY: Danielle, we’re taking some hits in your line. I do know coms there are tough with most likely each single reporter within the press pool making an attempt to add their stories. What jumped out at you from this much-anticipated press convention with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer?
KURTZLEBEN: To begin with, there have been questions concerning the U.Okay.’s impending choice to acknowledge Palestine as a state. And Donald Trump responded to a query about that, saying, look, that is simply one of many few points on which I don’t agree with Prime Minister Starmer.
KELLY: Yeah, I am simply going to leap in – ‘trigger we will hear that you simply’re very a lot within the thick of it – and simply get just a little little bit of your sense of what it’s there – pull again the curtain on what it is wish to be really in that room. What struck you by way of issues we would not have been capable of see, these of us who had been, you already know, watching a video feed from the surface.
KURTZLEBEN: The room was opulence, however, like, opulence has been the secret this week right here within the U.Okay. And that room that we had been in for that press convention – it was a room about as broad because it was tall. It was sort of a dice. And so it wasn’t very massive, size and widthwise. All of the reporters had been actually packed in like sardines.
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KELLY: I used to be all in favour of who received referred to as on at this press convention. The prime minister…
KURTZLEBEN: Proper.
KELLY: …Took the primary few questions. President Trump, who did he name on, and what had been you noticing as a White Home correspondent?
KURTZLEBEN: Effectively, fairly frankly, the president referred to as on right-leaning – to not put it mildly – reporters from right-leaning organizations. And he referred to as on GBN, which is a U.Okay. group that’s proper leaning.
KELLY: Yeah. I used to be within the GB Information newsroom right here in London yesterday getting a way of how they had been masking this go to. So it was actually attention-grabbing to see their new Washington anchor getting the primary query. One matter that didn’t appear to come back up was Jeffrey Epstein. There was loads of expectation that these two leaders did not need to speak about it. Subsequently, reporters would undoubtedly ask them about it. What do you make of that?
KURTZLEBEN: Look, I’m not going to take a position. I do not know what to make of that, however that was beautiful to me. I do not know why nobody requested about that. The query of that U.Okay. ambassador did come up, although. Somebody did ask Keir Starmer about Peter Mandelson, the ambassador who was fired not too long ago after some emails got here to mild displaying that he was fairly pleasant with Epstein, even after Epstein had been convicted of some fairly heinous issues. In order that did come up just a little. However you might be completely proper that direct questions on Jeffrey Epstein didn’t come up at this time. And look, I do not know what to make of it past being very, very stunned.
KELLY: OK, Danielle Kurtzleben, we’re going to launch you to the helicopter and to the flight that’s taking you and the remainder of the White Home reporters again to Washington at this time.
Effectively, NPR diplomatic correspondent Michele Kelemen has additionally been watching all of the pageantry, all of the wining and eating of President Trump. She joined me to speak concerning the state of the so-called particular relationship.
What was your takeaway on what these two leaders walked away from after this assembly?
MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: Yeah. I imply, it is actually exhausting to inform but whether or not all of this flattery, the pomp and circumstance, is admittedly going to make a distinction. I imply, we did hear the president shift gears on Russia a bit. I imply, you already know, he had met with Putin in Alaska and rolled out the pink carpet there. And since then, we have seen the Russians persevering with to bomb Kyiv. And Keir Starmer even identified that they are, you already know, hitting issues just like the British Council in Kyiv and the EU Embassy, and you’ve got Russian drones flying over Poland. So the Europeans – notably the Brits – have actually needed to maintain a deal with that and to get Trump to sort of change his thoughts on Putin and to essentially step up the stress.
KELLY: So let me finish us again on the particular relationship. I regarded this up. It was really Winston Churchill who coined that phrase shortly after World Warfare II, after all. After all it was Churchill. He owns all one of the best turns of phrase. Does the particular relationship nonetheless look particular out of your vantage level masking U.S. diplomacy?
KELEMEN: I feel the particular relationship has by no means at all times been, you already know, all that particular. I imply, you already know…
KELLY: It is come a good distance since Churchill?
KELEMEN: Yeah. It is not just like the U.S. and the U.Okay. are on the identical facet on all the pieces. And it is a tense time proper now as a result of, bear in mind, it hasn’t even helped the U.Okay. I imply, the U.Okay. has seen tariffs, like different nations. President Trump has a keenness for the Brits. He, you already know, has – his mom got here from Scotland, and he talks about that so much. However, you already know, they’re treating the Brits like they’re different European nations. It is all about dealmaking, transactional diplomacy and never a lot about these big-picture problems with what the world regarded like after World Warfare II and this particular alliance. It is gotten all the way down to sort of extra transactional diplomacy.
KELLY: That was NPR diplomatic correspondent Michele Kelemen. We additionally heard earlier from NPR White Home correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben, touring with the president. And you may hear extra of my conversations with each of them on our new podcast Sources & Strategies.
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