00:00David Dunn is Professor of International Politics at the University of Birmingham.
00:04David, welcome back. Keir Starmer says, I consider Trump's remarks to be insulting and appalling.
00:10Where does this leave the so-called UK-US special relationship?
00:16It's undoubtedly damaged by this. Trump has demonstrated he's uninformed, insensitive, disparaging, belittling,
00:24and that's gone down really badly. The UK press this morning is all over the story.
00:29There's a real sense of hurt here that he has to show contempt for the service, the sacrifice,
00:36that went into 20 years of standing shoulder to shoulder with the Americans in Afghanistan.
00:43The long commitment that the UK made and other European nations made is just swept away by smearing remarks by the president,
00:54saying we didn't need them anyways.
00:56It actually, as well as being massively insensitive and provocative, it also actually shows that, in his view,
01:04he doesn't need allies, he doesn't need alliances, and that actually strikes to the heart of the relationship.
01:11Starmer has demanded an apology from President Trump. Will he get it?
01:16Unlikely. Trump's form is never to apologise. That's his stick. That's the way he approaches things.
01:25When asked to comment on this, the White House talked about something else, about his contribution to NATO,
01:29fictionalised as that is in many ways, and their telling of it.
01:33And they seem to be willing to bluff it out. But this is causing real damage.
01:39This, on top of the week that we've had over the Greenland issue,
01:44has actually caused many people to stop on their tracks and think twice about this relationship.
01:48Mr. Trump's grasp of the details of recent military history might well be sketchy,
01:55but is there any method in his remarks?
01:58He's been railing against NATO allies' commitment for a long time.
02:03I think this is grandiosity on his part, that America is so big and so powerful and so wonderful,
02:10that it doesn't need allies, and that's the way he sees the world.
02:14But actually, America will be diminished by this considerably,
02:19by other members of its various alliances,
02:23thinking long and hard about whether they can rely on America,
02:27and whether they should be as close to America as they have been, when he behaves in this way.
02:31This is causing long-term damage to America's global network of alliances
02:37that has been the foundation of its global role and international leadership,
02:41and has been squandered by ill-advised remarks from this president.
02:46I wonder if this is the story of addressing remarks to a domestic audience.
02:52Mr. Trump is obviously concerned, regularly concerned, perhaps preoccupied with his domestic audience,
02:59and it might be said also of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer,
03:04who at the moment is under a certain amount of domestic pressure.
03:10Yeah, I think that that's undoubtedly the case here.
03:13Trump is always in campaigning mode.
03:16He's always concerned about what his base think.
03:18But actually, in stoking those fires, he actually is causing huge damage to America's soft power,
03:26its global power, its military alliances.
03:29And similarly, he can't be too insensitive of the fact that actually,
03:32when he makes remarks like this, politicians like Keir Starmer,
03:36however I may they have a view of the strategic importance of the United States,
03:39they can't be too far away from where their publics are.
03:42And just now, the public in the UK is very angry with Mr. Trump.
03:46And the remarks about Keir Starmer reflect that.
03:50David, good to see you.
03:51Thanks so much for coming on the programme.
03:52David Dunn, Professor of International Politics at the University of Birmingham.
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