The former British prime minister Winston Churchill delivered one of the most famous speeches in British history in March 1946 while in Fulton, Missouri. Churchill’s America visit focused on the dangerous postwar world, warning that Soviet communism had divided Europe with an “iron curtain”. This was a call to arms for the US not to abandon Europe after the Second World War. The result was the formation of the Nato alliance.
One other Churchillian phrase from that speech also became hugely important. The former wartime leader spoke of a US-UK “special relationship”. This phrase had such resonance that, 70 years later, the US embassy in London republished all of Churchill’s speech as a celebration of Britain and America as trusted allies. Times have changed and it is US President Donald Trump who has changed them.
There is considerable – but often whispered – alarm in European, and especially British, diplomatic circles about whether those two phrases from 1946 have any resonance with the Trump administration now. The “iron curtain” eventually came down, collapsing along with the Soviet Union, but European powers see Vladimir Putin’s Russia as a continuing threat. British diplomats and national security experts also wonder if the UK’s “special relationship” has been eclipsed by a peculiar and much less welcome “special relationship” between Mr Trump and Mr Putin. Nato members bordering Russia – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland – are especially nervous. Many of their citizens today are old enough to remember living behind the much-detested iron curtain.
In Britain there is also a particular concern about how “special” the once “special relationship” really is in 2026. Rather than celebrating 80 years of that US-UK relationship, the past few weeks have seen unease, alarm and undiplomatic rudeness. Mr Trump criticised Britain for somehow letting America down. Yet, on Iran, the UK was not consulted in advance. Therefore, like other Nato allies, it did not join Mr Trump’s adventure.
Other words and phrases Mr Trump used about Britain seem to commentators in the UK childish and petulant. In a weak voice Mr Trump impersonated and criticised UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer for refusing to join in the Iran conflict. Mr Trump complained that the British “should be our best” allies but have failed that test adding, “I said [to Mr Starmer]: ‘You have two, old broken-down aircraft carriers. Do you think you could send them over?’” Mr Trump then switched to his weak-voiced Starmer impersonation: “Ohhh, I’ll have to ask my team.” And “I said: ‘You’re the prime minister, you don’t have to.’”
British sources say that Mr Trump never asked for British aircraft carriers, the most recent of which were launched in 2014 and 2017. Mr Trump did ask for British minesweepers, presumably to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. Perhaps the US President confused minesweepers with flat-tops, as well as launch dates. Either way, confusion and a rambling style are no longer remarkable, but rudeness is counterproductive. It means British diplomats constantly discuss how to maintain our much-respected alliance with the US while at the same time handling a president pursuing a war that very few British people, politicians, military experts or diplomats think can end well.
Instead, the Iran war seems a bit like Mr Trump’s sudden destruction of the East Wing of the White House. It’s easy to knock things down but building back better is more difficult. In both Iran and the East Wing we shall see. Some British politicians are urging Mr Starmer to show his displeasure by cancelling the state visit of King Charles III to the US later this month. Cancellation seems unlikely. King Charles is one of the few people that Mr Trump appears to treat with respect, and the monarch is a smooth operator in tricky situations. Besides, Charles is visiting the American people, not just the man in the White House.
The US is a country of 350 million citizens that most British people usually admire, whoever happens to be in the White House. Charles will do his duty. We can hope Mr Trump will be a polite host, especially since he has strong links with the UK. His mother was Scottish and his British golf courses are prized possessions.
Whatever happens with the visit, every media outlet will look for signs of rudeness or undiplomatic language, but that is just froth. The serious problem is not bad manners and diplomatic etiquette, it’s hard power. The Economist magazine this week has a cover picture of an open-mouthed Mr Trump and a smiling, mocking, President Xi Jinping of China. The caption is famous words not from Winston Churchill but from Napoleon Bonaparte: “Never interrupt your enemy when he’s making a mistake.”
The idea that Mr Trump’s attacks on Iran make potential enemies such as the government of China happy and the allied governments of Britain and most of Europe unhappy may not immediately matter to the US President. But it might matter to the future security of all of us, including the American people.
