WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump made the case that he did not think Russian leader Vladimir Putin would “violate his word” on a potential deal to end the war in Ukraine while hosting British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the White House on Thursday as part of his full-force push to stop the fighting.
After meeting with France’s Emmanuel Macron on Monday, Starmer’s visit marks Trump’s second Oval Office sit-down with a European leader this week and follows the sudden huddling of European leaders in Paris earlier this month.
The summit came in response to an uneasiness in Europe over the U.S. leaders’ approach to the war after Trump spoke over the phone with Putin before sending top administration officials to meet with Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia without Ukrainian or European representation at the table..
“Trust and verify,” Trump said regarding the Russian leader during his Oval Office sit-down with Starmer on Thursday.
Starmer is looking to convince Trump that some level of security guarantees from the U.S. for Ukraine must be a part of an agreement to bring an end to the fighting. But such an argument will come in the face of deep reluctance expressed by Trump, who just a day before Starmer’s visit told reporters he would not be offering security guarantees to Ukraine “beyond very much,” calling on European nations to do so instead.
The U.K. leader stressed that he was prepared to put British “boots on the ground and planes in the air” — as is France — in Ukraine as part of a deal for “lasting peace.” But earlier this month, he made clear some kind of commitment from the U.S. had to come alongside it.
“There must be a U.S. backstop because a U.S. security guarantee is the only way to effectively deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again,” Starmer said in an address following the European summit.
Adding to the apparently somewhat askew approaches to the war, this week, the U.S. did not back a resolution at the United Nations placing blame for the war on Russia.
Starmer’s visit comes one day before Trump is set to host his third European leader this week when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy makes the trip to the White House on Friday, potentially to sign what the president called an “historic agreement” with the U.S. on critical minerals as part of the U.S. president’s push to end the war.
The two leaders’ approaches to Ukraine add to the overall uncertainty surrounding the future of transatlantic relations underscoring Thursday’s meeting as the newly reinstalled U.S. president forges ahead with his “America first” foreign policy credence. That includes his effort to impose tariffs on countries that he believes are treating the U.S. unfairly in trade.
Asked if the British leader convinced his U.S. counterpart to exclude the U.K. from his levies, Trump quipped “He tried.” But he then went on to tout a trade agreement in the works between the two countries that the U.S. president said could lead to tariffs not being necessary.
“I think we have a good chance at arriving at a deal that could be terrific, really terrific for both countries,” Trump said.
He also noted he put Vice President JD Vance on the project.
Starmer earlier referred to the U.S.-U.K. trade relationship as “not just strong, it’s fair and reciprocal,” in what could be seen as a response to Trump’s pledge to impose reciprocal tariffs on nations to even U.S. trade partnerships.
The British leader made a forceful case for the need for Europe should step up when it comes to defense, declaring that the U.K. is “all in” on doing so.
“We’ll be giving more monetary aid to Ukraine than ever, and just this week, I sent out that we’re shouldering more of a security burden,” he said. “We’re already one of the biggest spenders in NATO, and now we’re going much further.”
Trump — who has called on NATO allies to increase military spending to 5% of their GDP, despite the U.S. itself not hitting that benchmark — praised his British counterpart for stepping up investment in defense capabilities, noting that he had just read an article about the work the country is doing in the space.
As opposed to Macron, who worked with Trump during his first stint in the White House, Starmer, who just took office last summer and has sparred with the president’s right-hand man, billionaire Elon Musk, does not have much of an established history with the U.S. leader.
Trump noted in the Oval Office that despite meeting just twice before, he and the U.K. prime minister get along “famously.”
Starmer made a forceful case for the importance and strength of the U.S.-British alliance during his opening remarks at the press conference, drawing heavily on the historical significance of the pairing.
“The relationship, this relationship, matters more than ever,” Starmer said. “We’ve remained each other’s first partner in defense, ready to come to the other’s aid, to counter threats wherever and whenever they may arise. No two militaries are more intertwined than ours.”
“I’ll always be with the British, okay? I’ll always be with them,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
Starmer also came bearing a letter from the U.K.’s King Charles inviting the U.S. leader for what he called an “unprecedented” second state visit after Trump took part in his first in June 2019 during his initial four years in the White House. Trump accepted the offer.
