Trump praises Starmer’s ‘beautiful accent’ during chaotic White House meeting

President Donald Trump complimented Sir Keir Starmer on his ‘beautiful accent’ in the White House while refusing to apologize for calling Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator.

Trump gave the Prime Minister the bizarre compliment after Sir Keir said the UK looks forward to welcoming him for what would be an ‘unprecedented’ second state visit.

‘What a beautiful accent,’ Trump told Sir Keir in a press conference this afternoon.

‘I would have been president 20 years ago if I had that accent.’

Sir Keir laughed as Trump left his podium to shake hands with him.

Trump wasn’t as complimentary in regards to Zelensky – who is set to visit him tomorrow morning – but less harsh toward him than last week when he called him a dictator.

In an earlier presser alongside Sir Keir in the Oval Office today, Trump was asked if he would still use that word for his Ukrainian counterpart.

The US president said he ‘can’t believe’ he described Zelensky as a dictator.

 

Appearing surprised, he replied: ‘Did I say that? I can’t believe I said that.’

The post from February 19 in which he called Zelensky a ‘dictator without elections’ remains on his Truth Social account.

When another reporter later asked Trump if he will apologise to Zelensky in person for calling him a dictator while praising Putin who is a dictator, the US president did not say he would.

‘I think we’re going to have a very good meeting tomorrow morning, we’re going to get along really well, OK? Trump said of Zelensky.

President Donald Trump (right) and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (left) shake hands at a press conference at the White House in Washington, DC (Picture: Reuters)

‘We have a lot of respect – I have a lot of respect for him.

‘We’ve given him a lot of equipment and a lot of money but they have fought very bravely, no matter how you figure it.

‘Somebody has to use that equipment and they have been very brave in that sense.’

In a raucous West Wing meeting where questions were shouted by US and British journalists:

Trump said he was ‘very impressed’ with Sir Keir’s wife Victoria, describing her as a ‘beautiful, great woman’ and saying the PM is ‘very lucky’

The President said he did not think Vladimir Putin would be likely to invade Ukraine again, saying: ‘When we have a deal, it’s going to be the deal’

Sir Keir contradicted both Trump – by saying European countries would not be repaid their Ukraine support – and his vice president JD Vance – by saying the UK was proud of its tradition of free speech – with little pushback from either

Trump jokingly asked the PM: ‘Could you take on Russia by yourselves?’ – Sir Keir muttered ‘well’, and laughed

The President appeared not to recognise Aukus, the name of a security alliance between the US, UK and Australia

Asked about whether Kyiv would regain control of areas taken over by Russia, Trump said: ‘We’re going to see if we can get it back, or get a lot of it back, for Ukraine if that’s possible’

Trump accepted the offer to visit the UK, which was presented in the form of a letter from King Charles, and said he would be coming over in the ‘near future’.

As he greeted Sir Keir at the White House Trump said it is a ‘great honour’ to have the PM visit.

He added: ‘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.’

Donald Trump shows off his letter from the King (Picture: Reuters)

Today’s meeting is a high-stakes encounter, which Sir Keir and his team have spent weeks preparing for.

European security is top of the agenda after two weeks in which the postwar transatlantic alliance was shaken.

The PM has said repeatedly that if the US does not provide a security ‘backstop’ of some kind as part of a Ukraine peace deal, Russia could launch another assault.

However, Trump has signalled he may be more sympathetic to the Russian side, suggesting Kyiv was responsible for the 2022 invasion.

In the meeting today, he suggested he had a kinship with Putin as they ‘went through the Russia hoax together’ – his term for the allegations that the Kremlin interfered with the 2016 US election with his team’s knowledge.

There was an early positive sign from the bilateral meeting, with Trump indicating he could support the Labour government’s Chagos Islands deal.

The deal, which would hand over control of the strategically important archipelago to Mauritius, has been the subject of furious criticism by politicians from the Conservatives and Reform UK.

But at the White House today, the president said: ‘We’re going to have some discussions about that very soon, and I have a feeling it’s going to work out very well.

President Donald Trump (second from right) and Vice President JD Vance (right) meeting Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (second from left) and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy (left) in the Oval Office at the White House (Picture: PA Wire)

‘I think we’ll be inclined to go along with your country.’

In a second press conference in the afternoon, both Trump and Sir Keir said the meetings were very productive and that the US and UK stand side by side in working to bring the Russia-Ukraine war to an end.

‘You created a moment of tremendous opportunity to reach a historic peace (deal), a deal I think would be celebrated in Ukraine and around the world,’ Sir Keir said.

‘But we have to get it right.’

Trump said that he has had ‘back-to-back’ and ‘very successful’ calls with Putin and that his team has spoken with the NATO secretary general to end the ‘spiral of death’ that has senselessly killed about one million Ukrainians and Russians.

‘I think we’ve made a lot of progress and I think it’s moving along very rapidly,’ Trump said. ‘We’ll let you know what happens. It will either be fairly soon or it won’t be at all.’

Sir Keir became the fourth world leader to meet with Trump since his second inauguration, arriving two days after French President Emmanuel Macron paid a visit to the White House.

Zelensky will make the trip as the US and Ukraine hammer out a deal relating to valuable rare-earth minerals that Trump has argued should repay the cost of the support given by the US in the war.

David Wilson