Donald Trump’s evisceration of diplomatic consensus and disdain for multilateral action is remaking the world order at a pace spectator governments, most of all those in Europe, are struggling to comprehend.
Every social media tirade, standard diplomatic procedure dictates, should justify some new summit so agreed action can be considered and implemented. Earlier this week, Emmanuel Macron hastily convened European premiers in Paris for discussions over the future of Ukraine. But Trump’s chaotic briefing since has further complicated matters. The escalating war of words between the US president and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy exposes the futility of old world instincts in the new world the former is forging.
In two bursts across Tuesday and Wednesday, Trump claimed Zelenskyy has an approval rating of “4 per cent”; is doing a “terrible job” as Ukraine president; and is acting as a “dictator without elections”. Alongside these comments, came the suggestion that Ukraine started the war — not Russia or Vladimir Putin.
The profound implications of Trump’s stance will not have been lost on Downing Street and Keir Starmer, whose strategy of hugging the US president close (or as close as possible) is facing renewed challenge. Since the US presidential election in November, Starmer has sought to stress the thin overlap between his government’s aims and those of the now-incumbent Trump administration. The sweeping diplomatic differences, on issues like the Ukraine war, have been minimised and downplayed. The approach, suffice it to say, has demanded significant rhetorical contortion.
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But Trump’s fickle politics cares little for the UK-US “special relationship”. His vision for Ukraine has evolved in recent weeks — no doubt shaped by early conversations between the US administration and the Kremlin. It was Zelenskyy’s suggestion Trump is swimming in a thick soup of Russian propaganda that prompted his above comments.
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Trump’s remarks effected Starmer’s most overt criticism of US foreign policy since taking office. In a call with Zelenskyy, the UK prime minister reiterated his support for “Ukraine’s democratically elected leader”. A No 10 readout of the conversation revealed Starmer told his Ukraine counterpart it is “perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during wartime as the UK did during World War Two”.
Starmer, it is reported, wants to be a bridge between the United States and Europe. But how just tenable is this approach when Trump is tracking more and more toward the worldview promulgated by Putin?
The ramifications of this new reality stretch far beyond British politics — that much is plain. And the lobby lens of Westminster oneupmanship can distort just as much as it reveals. But the new diplomatic disorder, and its construction by an ascendant Trump-Putin axis, begs questions of all of the UK’s political parties. Their answers — or lack thereof — deserve some scrutiny.
Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party, is a case in point. Addressing the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference on Monday, Badenoch praised Trump for “fixing” problems as US president — problems he had initially spotted in his first term in the White House. “People ask me what difference new leadership will make?”, Badenoch stated. “Well, take a look at president Trump.”
On Wednesday morning, Bloomberg political editor Alex Wickham noted “some disquiet” in Conservative circles over Badenoch and her frontbench’s lack of comment on the situation in Ukraine. The Tory leader’s ARC speech had contained no reference to the negotiations being conducted between the US and Russian governments — or the war generally.
But Badenoch ended her relative silence on Wednesday afternoon in response to Trump’s “dictator” diatribe. Zelenskyy “is the democratically elected leader of Ukraine who bravely stood up to Putin’s illegal invasion”, the Conservative leader insisted in a post to X.
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She added: “President Trump is right that Europe needs to pull its weight — and that includes the UK. We need to get serious. The PM will have my support to increase defence spending — there is a fully funded plan to get to 2.5 per cent sitting on his desk.
“That should be the bare minimum. Starmer should get on with it, get on a plane to Washington and show some leadership. We cannot afford to get this wrong.”
There was no overt criticism of the US president by name, despite the apparent denunciation of his “dictator” remark. The two phrases — “Zelensky is not a dictator” and “President Trump is right” — spoke to the fine balance Badenoch sought to strike with her statement.
And contrast Badenoch’s response to the comments issued by former Conservative defence secretary Ben Wallace, who accused Trump of echoing Russian “propaganda lines” on Wednesday morning (pre “dictator” remark). See also the comments of former Conservative MP and cabinet minister Simon Clarke — who recently introduced Badenoch as the warm-up act for her New Year speech. He labelled Trump’s Ukraine stance “utterly appalling”.
The former levelling up secretary said: “Whatever the admiration some on the (centre) right may have for other aspects of the president’s agenda, his position … will embolden a murderous tyrant and sows the seeds for further, even more serious conflict in Europe.”
One takeaway from Badenoch’s statement is that she is not about to stop praising the US president’s general initiative in government.
The Liberal Democrats, as I argued last week, are the foremost critics of Donald Trump in Westminster. Unsurprisingly then, Lib Dem leader Ed Davey has called out the US president’s remarks in the strongest possible terms. He has labelled Trump “the Spokesperson for Vladimir Putin”, and accused him of “parroting” Kremlin propaganda.
After Trump’s Zelenskyy comments, Davey added: “[This] must be where the line is drawn.
“It is my sincere hope that the whole political spectrum in the United Kingdom will speak with one voice in opposition to Trump’s lies.”
Davey has spent the best part of today pointing to Reform UK leader and Trump chum Nigel Farage’s conspicuous silence. “You seem unusually quiet there… @Nigel_Farage any thoughts?”, he posted this morning.
Then came the follow-up: “There’s a rumour that Nigel Farage is keeping his head down because he’s off to a Trump cheerleading conference over the weekend.
“I’m afraid I’m being proved right — Farage is far more interested in Trump’s success than British security. He is a bootlicker and a plastic patriot.”
This afternoon however, Farage became the last UK political leader to reject Trump’s characterisation of Zelenskyy — over 20 hours after Badenoch’s intervention on X. Speaking to GB News, the Reform leader insisted that Zelenskyy “is not a dictator”.
But he added: “It’s only right and proper that Ukrainians have a timeline for elections.”
The Reform leader did go on to defend Trump’s conduct so far, saying he promised to “bring Putin to the negotiating table”, and “that is exactly what he’s done”.
“Is it right to try to seek peace in a war that has now seen one million battle casualties? Yes”, Farage said. He added that European allies are upset because “they have shown themselves to be pretty irrelevant.”
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Still, Farage’s long silence — broken by his GB News interview — was telling.
The Reform leader is set to appear at CPAC, the pro-Trump Conservative Political Action Conference, in Washington DC this weekend. Perhaps the Reform leader feared the backlash from MAGA acolytes if he rejected the president’s Ukraine stance. Perhaps it is the power of Elon Musk, as the ringleader of the ruthless Online Right, that Farage dreads. By straying from the MAGA line, Farage risks inciting Musk’s fury. (The Tesla owner has unsurprisingly backed Trump’s “dictator” comment).
Farage’s stance on the Ukraine conflict is one of the reasons Reform UK is politically vulnerable. During the 2024 general election campaign, Reform’s insurgency was stalled after Farage suggested the West “provoked” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by expanding the European Union and NATO military alliance eastwards. The discourse, at best, distracted from Reform’s central election pitch and, at worst, repelled potential voters.
Trump’s recent comments have re-exposed this soft underbelly.
And so this saga serves as a test for Farage: is he willing to act as a serious UK political actor and track toward the mainstream of British public opinion? Or is he more concerned with courting MAGA sentiment, and the support of a disproportionately noisy online fringe?
Farage must choose: the US speaker circuit or the House of Commons? MAGA opinion or British public opinion? Fringe or mainstream?
His eleventh-hour intervention would suggest Reform is reckoning with these questions. In the end though, the political rationale is just too compelling. According to a recent YouGov poll, just 3 per cent of Britons agree with Trump that Ukraine is to blame for Russia’s invasion of its sovereign territory. 8 per cent believe both sides are equally responsible, while an overwhelming 77 per cent blame Russia.
The findings are consistent across supporters of all political parties, including more than 60 per cent of Reform voters.
The status of MP was always going to confer upon Farage additional responsibilities — ones that he might have sidestepped in his erstwhile extra-parliamentary life. Trump’s Ukraine comments serve as a notable example of an issue from which the Reform leader could not escape.
After all, the time Farage took to pronounce on the issue speaks to his enduring political weaknesses and vulnerabilities.
Lunchtime briefing
Starmer backs Zelenskyy as Ukraine’s ‘democratically elected leader’ after Trump attack
Lunchtime soundbite
‘Let’s be clear — Zelenskyy is not a dictator. But it’s only right and proper that Ukrainians have a timeline for elections.’
— Nigel Farage breaks his silence and gives his view on his friend Donald Trump’s attacks on the Ukrainian president.
Now try this…
‘Raise taxes to pay for defence spending increase, ministers urge Reeves’
Labour insiders believe it would be difficult for the Conservatives to oppose such a rise, the i reports. (Paywall)
‘VP Vance *WILL* Raise Free Speech Issues with UK Govt During Official Visit Next Week.’
Via National Pulse.
‘Britain and France working on plans for ‘reassurance force’ to protect Ukraine’
The Guardian reports.
On this day in 2024:
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