00:01Britain's relationship with the United States reaches far beyond diplomacy.
00:07It affects trade, security, energy and decisions that can filter through to household budgets and businesses across the UK.
00:16Prime Minister Andy Burnham's first meeting with President Trump stressed the importance of maintaining close ties.
00:24But Trump's approach to foreign policy, press access and longstanding alliances has raised a broader question for Britain.
00:34How do you preserve an essential partnership with a president who can be difficult to predict?
00:40Trump, as we know, is a really difficult character.
00:44He's very brittle, very thin skinned, doesn't like criticism.
00:49So the fact he's banned news organizations which are asking some legitimate questions of his policies and the sort of
00:56the impact it's having on the American people.
00:58And more particularly, he's ill considered sort of a foray into Iran.
01:03And the fact that this is sort of driving at prices in America and across across the world, because, you
01:08know, we are experiencing the sort of the impact is in terms of potentially higher interest rates and oil prices
01:13and food and whatever else.
01:15I mean, it's really problematic. I'm tempted to use the F word. No, not that one.
01:21It's this is fascistic.
01:23It's straight out of the sort of the playbook.
01:25You know, you get rid of the people that you don't like.
01:27But of course, in any sort of modern and sort of mature democracy criticism, it goes with the territory.
01:34You know, all our recent prime ministers have been subject to sort of bucket loads, if you like, if you
01:39measure in such terms.
01:40And indeed, it's how we hold our people to account.
01:43It's certainly not good for democracy.
01:46It says, as we all know, Trump is a sort of a difficult character.
01:51But nonetheless, he leads one of the largest countries in the world or sort of one of the most influential
01:56countries, perhaps, if I sort of just clarify that largest economies in the world.
02:00So therefore, of course, you can't exactly sort of cut him off.
02:02There's a strong practical case for maintaining the relationship with the USA.
02:08Official figures show the United States accounted for more than £330 billion worth of UK trade in 2025, making it
02:20Britain's largest trading partner.
02:22American backed investment projects created almost 16,000 jobs in the 2025 to 2026 financial year.
02:33Britain and the United States are also expanding cooperation on artificial intelligence, autonomous defence systems and national security.
02:44Burnham said after his September meeting that it could work with Trump while making it clear Britain would defend its
02:52own positions where the two governments disagree.
02:55That mixture of cooperation and disagreement may shape the relationship.
03:01Trump, or at least the Republican Party, but of course, these days that the Republican Party is so sort of
03:07meshed into the image of Trump and what Trump wants and his, I was going to use the word ideology,
03:12but we're never quite sure what his ideology is, apart from sort of what's good for sort of Trump.
03:17And indeed, he seems to have spent a lot of the second term enriching himself and his family.
03:21But nonetheless, his Republican Party has to sort of face the midterm elections, which, of course, is about the sort
03:27of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
03:28The view is that he'll probably lose those because the American people are beginning to feel the sort of squeeze
03:35from the impact of sort of the oil crisis in America.
03:37Now, what does that mean? That sort of Trump effectively becomes a sort of a sitting president with no real
03:43powers because he can't enforce any laws.
03:45The danger is that we sort of get to the next election in two years time.
03:49So November, 2028, Trump loses the vote or at least the sort of he is no longer the president and
03:56then refuses to relinquish power.
03:58Now, what do we do then? Because, of course, normally people sort of willingly hand over.
04:03And of course, we saw sort of his bitter side when he didn't sort of attend the sort of the
04:07swearing in of Joe Biden, who I believe legitimately won that election.
04:12Most people do, but Trump does not. And of course, this is the nature of the character.
04:15And of course, should that happen, who is going to sort of to send in forces to remove him from
04:21office?
04:21And that could be a very dangerous moment in the sort of the democracy that we've always looked up to
04:26and sort of applauded called America, because constitutionally that that point has never been reached before.
04:31So the relationship is neither purely personal or simply political.
04:37British businesses, workers and public services are tied to decisions made on both sides of the Atlantic, while defence cooperation
04:45gives the partnership strategic importance beyond trade.
04:49Trump's approach has created disputes over institutions and press access, while Burnham has emphasised areas of common ground.
04:59For Britain, the continuing question is how to protect economic and security interests while deciding where cooperation is possible and
05:10where its own principles require a different position.
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