With Donald Trump, it’s all about relationships.
Going into this bilateral summit, those around Sir Keir Starmer were stressing that these guys genuinely got on well, they liked each other, and that the prime minister could say things to Mr Trump in private and not get his head blown off.
What we saw today was a genuine rapport between the two men, and Mr Trump seems amenable to Sir Keir.
Number 10 will have thought that this could not have gone better.
Politics latest: Trump tells Starmer UK may get ‘great’ trade deal
One key element for the UK side was convincing Mr Trump to give security guarantees for Ukraine in any kind of peace deal with Russia, but he didn’t really bite on that topic.
Nonetheless, Sir Keir will have plenty to discuss with European leaders at the big London summit on Sunday.
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The big story that emerged out of the press conference was, however, about trade.
Mr Trump has been threatening allies around the world with tariffs.
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He didn’t completely rule out tariffs on the UK, but he did say that what he wanted to do was a trade deal where maybe this could be avoided.
That would be a huge win for a prime minister who did not necessarily think he would come out with that, and also for a UK government that really needs to strengthen trade ties with the US because they’re looking for economic growth.
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Whether they can agree on things such as food standards and NHS access is not so clear.
But Sir Keir will be pleased with how well this played out today.
