Donald Trump will view Keir Starmer as a ‘lightweight woke lefty’ and will not trust him, a top US analyst has warned.
Nile Gardiner, director of The Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, told DailyMail.com that the President-elect would see the Prime Minister as a ‘novice’ when it comes to negotiating.
The Labour leader is currently ‘in the dog house’ after dozens of Labour activists flew to the US to help Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the election.
Mr Gardiner said that relations are so bad Sir Keir might not even be welcome at Mr Trump’s Florida estate were he to fly there and kiss the ring.
But he could start by sacking his foreign secretary David Lammy, who has called the President-elect a ‘serial liar’ and a ‘wannabe despot’ in the past.
Donald Trump has pulled off an astounding political comeback and regained the White House as he’s declared the winner of the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
A desperate Keir Starmer has congratulated Donald Trump in their first phone call since the Republican’s shock election win as he tries to repair ties
Foreign Secretary David Lammy previously calling Trump a ‘neo-Nazi’ sympathiser
The incident with Labour activists in the final weeks of the US election, which Mr Trump won convincingly, led the Trump campaign to file a complaint with the American election regulator, the FEC.
Sir Keir tried to patch things over with Mr Trump by pointing to the dinner they shared in New York in September.
And after Mr Trump’s surprise landslide against Ms Harris, the Prime Minister has talked about how ‘crucial’ a strong US / UK relationship is.
Mr Gardiner however said there would be ‘significant tensions ahead’ when it came to Britain and America.
The ‘Special Relationship’ would come under strain because Sir Keir ‘represents a socialist worldview and agenda that’s an anathema to Trump’.
Mr Gardiner said: ‘I do not think Donald Trump will trust Keir Starmer at all.
‘I think he will view Starmer and the Labour government in many respects as problematic.’
The two men are likely to clash over the Middle East with Labour recently banning some arms sales to Israel while Mr Trump will be one of the country’s strongest supporters.
The same dynamic will play out with regards to Israeli attacks on Iran which Labour are more cautious about.
Sir Keir congratulated Mr Trump on his ‘historic victory’ after US voters returned him to the White House, Downing Street said
He becomes the first president in over 130 years to win a non-consecutive second term. (Pictured: Donald, wife Melania and their son Barron on stage in West Palm Beach as Trump delivered his victory speech on Tuesday night).
On climate there are big differences too and even on Brexit, Sir Keir is far softer than Mr Trump.
Mr Gardiner said: ‘Mr Trump will hold Starmer’s feet to the fire on Brexit. Trump intensely dislikes supranationalism and has a sceptical view of the EU.’
There is also a breakdown on a personal level too, despite the two-hour charm offensive Sir Keir deployed over dinner in September.
‘Mr Trump will view Starmer as lightweight and as a novice on the international stage,’ Mr Gardiner said.
‘He will view Starmer as a woke lefty and Trump doesn’t like woke lefties’.
But the biggest divide may well be the more than 100 Labour activists who flew to the US to campaign on behalf of Ms Harris.
In the complaint to the FEC, the Trump campaign demanded an inquiry into ‘immediate investigation into blatant foreign interference’.
The complaint cited a now-deleted post on LinkedIn by Sofia Patel, head of operations at the Labour Party, which said 100 staffers were going to be working in battleground states like North Carolina and Nevada.
It is another major headache for Keir Starmer as he scrambles to prop up the Special Relationship in the wake of Mr Trump’s triumph
Tim Murtaugh, Team Trump’s communications chief, told the Daily Mail that the key moment came in closing hours of the race, when Trump donned an apron and manned the fry station at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania last month (pictured).
The six page document cited a report in the Telegraph which said staffers from Labour would have to be on holiday and be paying their own way.
Rules about foreigners working in US elections are strict and state that they must volunteer and cannot receive any payment.
Mr Gardiner said: ‘This is an extremely serious matter and hugely damaging to Sir Keir in terms of his relationship with Trump and the Trump administration.
In a highly unusual step, the PM’s press secretary committed to leaving David Lammy (pictured) as Foreign Secretary until the end of the Parliament
The PM has also repeatedly clashed with billionaire Elon Musk , who could end up playing a key role in a Trump (pictured) administration should the Republic emerge victorious
‘Sir Keir underestimated the damage this has caused and clearly he thought Harris would win.
‘That may explain why the Prime Minister Starmer handled it very badly. He should have apologised and called his Labour activists back to the UK. He didn’t do that. That was a big mistake.
‘There are going to be significant implications from this: the Trump administration won’t trust Sir Keir and Labour and will view them as adversarial and batting for the other side.
‘The damage for the UK is very, very significant here. It should not be underestimated.’
Mr Gardiner predicted there would be Congressional hearings on the use of Labour activists, not least because Republicans have won back control of the Senate with the House still to play for.
‘I think Keir Starmer is in the dog house right now and I’m not sure he would be welcome at Mar-a-Lago right now,’ Mr Gardiner said.
‘Sir Keir is viewed as part and parcel of the Harris operation’.
Firing Mr Lammy for his ‘vicious’ attacks on Mr Trump would be a start, Mr Gardiner said.
Among the barbs directed at Mr Trump by Mr Lammy on social media include the quip: ‘If Trump did GCSEs he wouldn’t make it to sixth form.’
Mr Lammy has said that Mr Trump is a ‘neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath’ and mocked him as a ‘troll’ who is ‘truly beneath contempt’.
Now that same man will be sitting at the table with Mr Lammy talking about Britain’s future relationship with the US.
Mr Gardiner said: ‘The smartest thing would be to sack David Lammy and apologise for the intervention by Labour staffers.
‘But I’m in no doubt that it will be practically impossible for Sir Keir to work with the Trump Presidency’.