World leaders traditionally exchange gifts at top level meetings – and Keir Starmer and Donald Trump were no different when the PM visited the White House for key talks
Keir Starmer tried to woo golf-loving Donald Trump by giving him a cap in his family tartan.
The Prime Minister’s gift gave a nod to Mr Trump’s Scottish heritage, as his mother Mary Anne MacLeod was born on the island of Lewis in the outer Hebrides.
Mr Starmer also gave the US President some Downing Street golf balls and a set of crystal glasses to the US President on his visit to the White House this week.
First Lady Melania Trump received a Liberty scarf, a book about Chequers, the PM’s lavish country retreat, and a No10 candle from the PM.
The US President gave Mr Starmer a US soccer shirt with number 10 and his surname emblazoned on the back – in a mark of the PM’s love of football.
World leaders traditionally swap gifts at top level formal meetings, an exchange which is often closely scrutinised.
During his first stint in the White House in 2017, Theresa May was the first foreign leader to visit Mr Trump. She gave him a quaich – a traditional Scottish cup of friendship – while First Lady Melania Trump received a hamper of produce from Chequers from Mrs May.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump gave the-then PM a framed picture of Abraham Lincoln swearing the Oath of Office on the same copy of the Bible used by Mr Trump at his inauguration.
Some gifts have been more successful than others. Gordon Brown reportedly rejected a fur trimmed leather bomber jacket with his name on it from George W Bush.
But Barack Obama was criticised for giving Mr Brown a set of DVDs of classic films, whereas the-then UK PM gave him a pen and holder carved from an anti-slavery ship and biographies of Winston Churchill, worth $16,510.
