Britain may be bracing itself for the arrival of US President Donald Trump, but his state visit, cloaked in all the trappings of pomp and circumstance that he loves, looks to be more substantive than performative.
Sure, he’ll dine with the King and Queen, and interact with the Prince and Princess of Wales. But it's the business Mr Trump is bringing with him that could ultimately help to bail out Britain. Not its European allies, nor its friends on the American left and certainly not its leaders.
That’s because the UK appears to be crumbling. Britain’s borrowing costs have surged to the highest level among OECD nations. The government is billions of dollars in the hole, looking to tax and spend its way back to growth and refusing to cut funding for its enormous welfare state.
Meanwhile, the exodus of millionaires continues unabated, egged on by predictions that UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves will present an autumn budget that is set to be nothing short of brutal.
For the UK, foreign investment is essential for growth and stability. With the Labour government making every effort to chase it away, Mr Trump’s response is to send in the cavalry.
His entourage this week will represent trillions of dollars in American tech, AI, energy and real estate. The leaders of Nvidia, OpenAI and BlackRock will pledge support for billions of dollars in UK data centre investments, in a landmark tech-sharing agreement, despite the fact that the UK has some of the highest electricity costs in the world.
While even the President’s own Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, tells me it doesn’t make sense for companies to invest when the cost of doing business is so high, here they come with major commitments, plus promises to invest in the nuclear technology necessary to make the UK’s AI corridor a reality.
This week, the US and UK will sign a deal that should clear the way for a major expansion of new nuclear reactors in Britain. The “golden age” of nuclear kicks off with an agreement between America’s Xenergy and the UK’s Centrica to use the country’s first advanced modular nuclear reactors in a programme that aims to deliver $40 billion in economic value.
It’s the biggest backing of nuclear in a generation; creating a secure energy base load while ensuring resilient fuel supply chains. Significantly, the deal also targets the country’s energy security, with the stated goal of ending any last dependency on Russian nuclear material by the end of 2028.
None of this is happening in a vacuum. For months, British trade representatives have been making their case in Washington, hoping to cut a deal that would circumvent a total divergence between the US and UK on what a responsible energy mix entails. For a man who is skeptical of net-zero, who hates windmills and decries solar, Mr Trump and his team are making a real effort to make something stick.
While a YouGov poll conducted earlier this summer found that some 44 per cent of respondents believed the US President’s state visit should be cancelled, Mr Trump seems to be more committed than ever to keeping the UK afloat. He even seems to have taken a shine to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, despite the fact Mr Starmer leads a Labour government whose policies seem designed to antagonise the leader of the Maga movement.
Mr Trump’s commitment to what’s known as the “special relationship” between America and the UK couldn’t come at a more opportune moment. As he arrives in Britain, he will be touching down in a nation divided.
Both major political parties are polling at less than 40 per cent approval combined. When more than 100,000 people, many draped in British flags, marched in anti-migration protests in London over the weekend, their message wasn’t just about turning migrant boats back. It was also about preserving the right to complain about it.
Labour and Conservatives alike have become entirely divorced from the actual population. The birth of the Reform Party, the backlash against migrants and the meteoric rise of activists such as Tommy Robinson are the result. The very fabric of British society is fraying. Clearly, Mr Trump wants to do right by the UK. The government and its people should let him.
