5 big ways Donald Trump will strain the UK-US special relationship

LONDON — Donald Trump’s expected return to the White House will put Britain’s much-lauded “special relationship” with the United States to the test like never before.
Center-left prime minister Keir Starmer has argued the U.K. can make it work, congratulating Trump Wednesday and insisting “the U.K.-U.S. special relationship will continue to prosper on both sides of the Atlantic for years to come.”
That’s easier said than done. POLITICO runs through the key areas set to strain diplomatic relations between London and a Trump-occupied White House.
Spats between Trump and Labour go way back, even if Keir Starmer is working hard to smooth things over.
David Lammy, the U.K.’s top diplomat, has been furiously backpedaling after calling Trump a “neo-Nazi sympathizing sociopath” before he came into office. Other top Labour figures, including London mayor Sadiq Khan, openly beefed with Trump in his first term.
Trump’s allies also know how to rattle Labour in turn. Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage wants to eat into Labour’s vote on the right, and is arguably Trump’s top British ally, celebrating the election result at the U.S. Republican’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump mega-donor and X owner Elon Musk fought with Starmer this summer over his handling of riots in the U.K. over the summer.
And, to top things off, Team Trump filed a legal complaint last month after Labour activists traveled to the U.S. to campaign for Harris.
Despite Trump’s previous enthusiasm for a U.K.-U.S. free trade deal, his support for imposing tariffs of up to 20 percent on all U.S. imports could cause major problems for the U.K., and global trade more broadly.
British trade officials insist they’ve been preparing for every eventuality before the election. “We model every potential outcome as to what some of the campaign pledges might mean for an economy like ours,” Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told POLITICO in recent days.
If Trump does revive a U.K.-U.S. trade deal, meanwhile, expect previous U.K. government red lines on American corporate access to Britain’s state-funded healthcare system and a refusal to budge on food standards to re-emerge.
Britain’s new government hopes to seek a more constructive relationship with China. A government-wide review of U.K.-China relations is underway. Foreign Secretary Lammy even visited Beijing last month, vowing a “more consistent strategy” and cooperation on big issues like climate, trade and AI.
But Trump’s approach couldn’t be more different.
The Republican wants to impose 60 percent tariffs on goods from China and has long blamed the country for the United States’ woes. He has insisted, nonetheless, that he has a “very strong relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping — partially because Xi believed he was “crazy.”
Starmer has maintained the U.K.’s strong, bipartisan support for Ukraine against Russia’s full-scale invasion. The British government has vowed £3 billion in military aid to Ukraine every year for “as long as it takes,” and maintains the position that Russia should relinquish all territory gained since February 2022.
Trump has a very different stance. He has refused to explicitly say if he wants Ukraine to win. He vowed to “stop wars” in a victorious speech Wednesday morning, praised Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and threatened to stop aid to Kyiv.
The U.S. is Ukraine’s top backer when it comes to funding, so it’s little wonder top British politicians have been lobbying Trump behind the scenes to keep up American support for Ukraine.
Labour’s Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has told anyone who will listen that the country is on its way to becoming a “clean energy superpower” — and has already promised the U.K. green investments worth billions of pounds, rushed to approve a string of massive new solar farms, and lifted a ban on building onshore wind turbines in England.
Trump, meanwhile, is shifting entirely the other way.
While Labour has prioritized a break from oil and gas, Trump took the U.S. out of the climate agreements in the Paris Agreement during his last stint in office and has promised to “drill, baby, drill” for more fossil fuels.
He would also likely rip up any proposed climate regulations which do not make it over the line in Joe Biden’s final weeks in office and try to peel back spending being rolled out as part of Biden’s green stimulus package.
And as for building good relations, Miliband has called Trump an “absolute moron.” So, there’s that.
Graham Lanktree and Emilio Casalicchio contributed to this report.