\n<\/p>\n
Donald Trump has threatened to row back on the trade deal the US signed with the UK last year, in his latest salvo against the British government over sharp differences about the US\u2019s approach to the Middle East.<\/p>\n
The US president said the economic deal struck with the UK, which cut some of his tariffs on cars, aluminium and steel, was \u201cbetter than I had to\u201d and that it could \u201calways be changed\u201d.<\/p>\n
UK ministers have cited the agreement signed last May as an example of the continuing close ties with the US, which they argue persist despite Trump\u2019s increasingly harsh criticism of Keir Starmer and his government.<\/p>\n
However, they are furious at the economic fallout on the UK and other nations from the US decision to go to war with Iran, potentially triggering a global recession that would affect the UK more than any of the other G7 nations.<\/p>\n
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has said she is \u201cfrustrated and angry\u201d that the US launched strikes without a clear idea of its objectives, while Starmer said last week he was \u201cfed up\u201d with Trump\u2019s actions causing energy bills to rise.<\/p>\n
Trump, in his latest interview with a journalist on his personal mobile phone, told Sky News that the so-called special relationship between the US and UK was in a \u201csad state\u201d and again accused Britain of being \u201cnot there when we needed them\u201d over the Iran conflict.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, it\u2019s been better, but it\u2019s sad. And we gave them a good trade deal, better than I had to, which can always be changed,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the relationship where when we asked them for help, they were not there when we needed them, they were not there when we didn\u2019t need them. They were not there, and they still aren\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/span>‘I’m not going to yield’: Starmer responds to Trump’s threat to axe UK-US trade deal \u2013 video<\/span><\/p>\n Asked whether relations between the two leaders were at a low point, Starmer\u2019s spokesperson said: \u201cI certainly wouldn\u2019t characterise it in the way that the president has said \u2026 The special relationship with the US exists on multiple levels and we have a close relationship, which spans trade, diplomacy, national security, culture and beyond. It\u2019s far bigger than any individual issue.\u201d<\/p>\n Starmer has increasingly leaned towards the EU, arguing that the economic and security benefits of a closer relationship with the bloc are \u201csimply too big to ignore\u201d, particularly at a time of such global volatility and when the US has proven itself to be an unreliable partner.<\/p>\n In his interview, Trump suggested a permanent ceasefire could be struck with Tehran before King Charles\u2019s state visit to the US later in April. \u201cThey\u2019re beaten up, pretty bad. It\u2019s very possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He repeated his previous criticisms \u2013 not always factually accurate \u2013 of the UK\u2019s policies on energy and immigration and defended himself for wading into other countries\u2019 domestic politics.<\/p>\n \u201cI like Starmer but I think he\u2019s made a tragic mistake in closing the North Sea oil. You see your energy prices are the highest in the world,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think he\u2019s made a tragic mistake on immigration. I love your country, and I would love to see it succeed. But if you have bad immigration policies and bad energy policies, you have the worst of both. You can\u2019t succeed, not possible.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people ask me what I think about them [the policies], and I think they\u2019re insane. They\u2019re destroying your country.\u201d<\/p>\n Reeves, in Washington for meetings at the International Monetary Fund, is set to meet her US counterpart, Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, after he said \u201ca small bit of economic pain\u201d caused by the Iran war was worth it to prevent Tehran getting a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n The comments put him at odds with Reeves, who has voiced frustration at the \u201cfolly\u201d of the US\u2019s actions in the Middle East and its financial fallout on families.<\/p>\n The IMF\u2019s spring meetings will be dominated by the crisis in the Gulf. It has cut Britain\u2019s economic growth forecast as a result of the conflict and warned that a worldwide recession could be on the cards.<\/p>\n However, the Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, said the UK was much better placed to deal with the fallout because of its resilient banking system forged after the 2007-09 financial crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Donald Trump has threatened to row back on the trade deal the US signed with the UK last year, in his latest salvo against the British government over sharp differences about the US\u2019s approach to the Middle East. The US president said the economic deal struck with the UK, which cut some of his tariffs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[1442,696,258,328,12176,7268,199,430,81,24225,1060],"class_list":{"0":"post-48347","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-changed","9":"tag-deal","10":"tag-foreign","11":"tag-policy","12":"tag-relations","13":"tag-sad","14":"tag-state","15":"tag-trade","16":"tag-trump","17":"tag-usuk","18":"tag-warns"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}