Since the beginning of the year, there has been a marked difference between the effusive and slightly over-the-top kind words Donald Trump has used about Keir Starmer and the appalling things his key supporters have been saying about the prime minister. That along with the contemptuous briefings against him and his government.
But this last week, all has become all too clear about the mafia boss-style game Trump is using in his relations with his beloved UK – the land of his mother.
It was highlighted in the Oval Office in the afterglow of Trump getting the letter from the King he had hankered for, asking him to be the first person in history to get a second state visit to the UK.
A reporter asked a question about vice president JD Vance’s attack on Britain in his incredibly hostile Munich speech where he claimed Starmer’s government was engaged in an assault on free speech, not least with its plans to impose laws restricting online and social media activity.
The president paused for a moment and then turning to his vice president asked him to explain what he meant. Vance did not hold back and a slightly alarmed looking Sir Keir felt the need to jump in to remind everyone that Britain “has had free speech for hundreds of years… and will continue to have free speech for hundreds of years.”
It was not exactly the meltdown in the Oval Office that followed 24 hours later when Vance publicly launched an attack on Ukraine’s President Zelensky but it was a noticeable awkward moment in an atmosphere of mutual back slapping and bon a vie.
As we all took to our laptops to congratulate the prime minister on a diplomatic victory apparently edging Mr Trump closer to starting trade deal talks and getting his support for the Chagos Islands deal, that moment began to loom large.
It did not take long for friends connected to the Trump team to contact me about what had happened there. And there was an interesting answer to the contrast between President Trump and Mr Vance.
“Don’t take Trump’s comments at face value or not. He could just be softening Starmer for another reason,” one said.
But perhaps a more significant warning: “JD is his mouthpiece. He says what Trump doesn’t want to say personally.”
This explains why Trump did not want to ruin the moment with the letter from the King and praising Starmer’s “wonderful, beautiful wife” with a sour note on free speech and social media, instead asking his vice president to do his dirty work.
It also explains why 24 hours later Vance was the Rottweiler unleashed to rip apart President Zelensky in front of the world in the middle of the Oval Office before Trump himself intervened.
Back in Munich, Vance said what people connected to the administration have been saying for months. The aggressive language used by Mr Vance and in briefings represents President Trump’s view of Sir Keir and the UK government much more than his praise for “special man” prime minister with his “lovely accent” – words nobody has ever thought let alone said about the PM’s voice.
But then here is the crux of the problem.
