Much like the weather over Chequers today, Donald Trump and Keir Starmer’s press conference always felt like it was at risk of going very, very wrong… but never quite did
The sun finally came out the instant Marine One took off from the lawn outside Chequers, drawing Donald Trump’s second state visit to a close.
The skies had been grey all day, with Downing Street aides nervously watching the sky to see if they’d have to tell the President he wasn’t going to see the Red Devils jump out of a plane after all.
The threat of rain, which had already forced the same nervous aides to move a planned outdoor press conference indoors, never turned into a downpour.
In much the same way, the press conference itself always felt like it was at risk of going dramatically off the rails, but never quite did.
I arrived early to Chequers, the Prime Minister’s 16th Century country mansion, and was lucky enough to snag a delicious herby chicken sandwich laid on by our hosts. Latecomers had to make do with a vegan salad of chickpeas and hummus (which is also made of chickpeas).
The first we saw of Trump was from very far away, over a garden wall, as he, Melania, Keir and Lady Starmer watched the promised Red Devils jump out of a plane, unfurling a union flag and a stars and stripes on the way down.
It felt mean to point out that the President and I had both seen the same stunt pulled off by the US Air Force’s parachute stunt squad at his birthday tank parade in June.
After that, the 60 or so reporters from the US and UK press corps were piled into an increasingly stuffy, but definitely grand chamber, with oil paintings covering every inch of wall space.
Members of Trump’s now famous – or perhaps infamous – administration were milling about – and provoked some confusion among the UK press lobby by bursting into applause at the beginning and end of the event.
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We’re polite to politicians. We treat them with respect and write about them with fairness. But we don’t clap.
And while there were a few touch and go moments – Trump claiming he didn’t know Peter Mandelson, like St Peter when the cocks crew, and the lengthy rant about Biden’s autopen.
But in the end the presser – and the state visit as a whole – went largely without incident.
And given how Keir Starmer’s luck has been in recent weeks, you wouldn’t have put money on that.