Sir Keir Starmer handed Trump an ‘unprecedented’ letter from King Charles during a press conference with reporters at the White House – saying ‘this is really special, this has never happened before’
Keir Starmer gives Donald Trump a letter from King Charles
This is the extraordinary moment Donald Trump opened a rare letter from King Charles in the White House as Keir Starmer told him: “This is really special, this has never happened before.”
The PM revealed during a press conference that Trump had been invited for an unprecedented second state visit by King Charles, making him the first elected political leader in modern times to be hosted for two state visits by a British monarch.
The US President immediately accepted the invitation in front of reporters at the White House. “This is really special. This has never happened before. This is unprecedented,” Starmer told Trump as he handed him the letter.
He said: “It is my pleasure to bring from His Majesty the King, a letter. He sends his best wishes and his regards, of course, but he also asked me to bear this letter and bring it to you. So can I present a letter from the King.” Mr Trump replied: “Thank you very much. Am I supposed to read it right now?”
Starmer’s trip to the US comes shortly after he announced an increase in UK defence spending, ostensibly as a signal to Trump that the UK is prepared to bolster Europe’s security, and as he aims to broker a fair peace deal for Ukraine amid Trump’s warming relations with Russia.
He arrived in Washington on Wednesday evening to build on a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron, amid growing concerns in Europe that the US leader is about to sell Kyiv short in negotiations with Putin. Trump greeted him outside the White House ahead of the crucial discussion on the war-torn region.
The two leaders were pictured exchanging smiles and shaking hands at the building’s entrance, where reporters asked the president if he can get a peace deal done in Ukraine, to which he answered “yes, we can” before swiftly heading inside. Trump said inside the White House: “It’s a great honour to have Prime Minister Starmer at the Oval Office.
!It’s a very special place and he’s a special man – and the United Kingdom is a wonderful country that I know very well, I’m there a lot. I’ll be going there and we expect to see each other in the near future – we’ll be announcing it.
“We’re going to be discussing many things today, we’re going to be discussing Russia/Ukraine, we’ll be discussing trade and lots of other items, and I think we can say we are going to be getting along on every one of them.
“We’ve had a tremendous relationship and, frankly, the Prime Minister and I have met twice before, and we get along very famously, as you would say, and I look forward to it very much.”