In the coming days, Britain will host Donald Trump for his second state visit, an honour without precedent for any American president in history. The red carpets, royal carriages, and trappings of state will be polished to a brilliant shine, but this pomp cannot disguise a grim reality. This visit is not a celebration of a “Special Relationship”; it is a momentous low for Great Britain, a public performance of weakness on the world stage.
This event is not happening in a vacuum. It follows a weekend where London saw 100,000 far-right protestors march on the capital, a demonstration bolstered by American money and amplified by American oligarchs calling for the overthrow of the British government. These are not separate stories. They are two acts in the same play, and the theme is the abject vulnerability of a post-Brexit Britain adrift in a world of competing power blocs. This visit is an invitation to humiliation, and the British government, trapped in a diplomatic cul-de-sac of its own making, seems ready to accept.
The Myth of the “Special Relationship”
For decades, a core ambition of every British government, Labour or Conservative, has been to curry favour with the incumbent of the White House. This obsession is rooted in the myth of the “Special Relationship,” a concept that, as I’ve long argued, exists almost entirely in the imagination of Britain’s political class and nowhere else.
Even the much-vaunted friendship between Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan was one of pragmatic convenience, not blind loyalty. Thatcher, while she liked Reagan personally, held deep reservations about his intellect and was infuriated by the US invasion of Grenada and Washington’s initial waffling during the Falklands War. She operated from a position of relative strength.
In the years since, Britain has become observably weaker. Tony Blair’s sycophantic pursuit of favour with George W. Bush, leading the country into the disastrous Iraq War, marked a significant turning point. The relationship became one of a junior partner desperate for approval. Now, in the post-Brexit era, that power imbalance has become a chasm. The epic disaster of leaving the European Union has paradoxically resulted not in a bold, independent “Global Britain,” but in a state of enormous and necessary vassalage to the United States.
The Price of Desperation: What Trump Really Wants
Keir Starmer’s government, having wisely decided not to relitigate the endless arguments of Brexit, has gambled its future on a transatlantic relationship, specifically a US trade deal. This is a spectacular naivety born of desperation. A trade deal with the US would in no way make up for the economic damage of leaving the European Single Market. More importantly, it requires dealing with a man who has no interest in fair play.
Donald Trump isn’t coming to London to be impressed by gold carriages. He is coming for a shakedown. His objectives are clear and have been for years. He wants to tear down Britain’s non-tariff barriers—our food standards, animal welfare regulations, and the prohibitions on chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated beef. But the real prize, the crown jewel he and his corporate allies have long coveted, is access to Britain’s National Health Service. The goal is to open up the NHS to American healthcare companies, allowing them to compete for lucrative government contracts and fundamentally privatize a system cherished by the British public. This is the price of admission to Trump’s world.
The Bully’s Playbook: Why Britain is the Perfect Mark
To understand this visit, you must understand Donald Trump. He is not a traditional statesman; his worldview was forged as a real estate huckster in 1980s New York, spending time with figures from the Gambino crime family and fancying himself a mafia strongman. Like all bullies, he looks for victims.
He knows he cannot strong-arm his rivals. China has demonstrated its invulnerability to his economic threats. He looks at Putin’s Russia with admiration, seeing a single-minded leader he cannot easily bend to his will. So he asks himself and the CEOs now beating a path to his door: where do the easy wins come from? They don’t come from a deindustrialized, debt-laden America. They come from weak countries that signal their desperation.
Great Britain, which signals its weakness every day, is the perfect mark.
American Money, British Streets: The Unspoken Connection
The weakness of the British state was on full display last Sunday. A demonstration of 100,000 people, organized by the far-right, was amplified by a broadcast message from Elon Musk—an American citizen and oligarch close to the White House—effectively demanding the overthrow of the British government. This was funded by a river of money flowing across the Atlantic from right-wing, often evangelical, American sources.
Were this to happen in any other sovereign nation, it would be a major diplomatic incident. But in Britain, the government has become so weakened, so incapable of managing the state, and so desperate for any fleeting economic bump, that it must simply absorb a direct threat of insurrection. It is a stunning portrait of a nation that has lost the capacity to defend its own sovereignty from external interference.
Conclusion: A Future Reliant on Goodwill That Doesn’t Exist
From 2016 onwards, Britain has embarked on a series of fantastical attempts at reinvention based on magical thinking. The country is trying to play a 19th-century game of balancing rival powers in a 21st-century world defined by massive trading blocs. The consequence of leaving the largest bloc on its doorstep is a future of diminishment and dependence.
The state visit will go ahead. There will be protests, and it remains to be seen not whether, but to what extent, Keir Starmer is humiliated by his guest. He is being treated to the pomp and pageantry because his government naively believes this will impress Trump and predispose him to treating Britain well.
They fundamentally misunderstand the man they are dealing with. The future Britain now faces is one where its prosperity and security are reliant on the goodwill of Donald Trump.
Just consider that for a moment. And understand that for a growing, aggressive far-right in Britain, this dependence, this chaos, and this erosion of democratic norms is not a crisis. It is a glorious opportunity.
From the Explaining History Archives: Go Deeper
The issues raised in this article—the fragility of the “Special Relationship,” the economic stakes of a US-UK trade deal, and the growing influence of the American far-right on British politics—are complex and have deep historical roots.
If you want to explore these themes further, dive into our dedicated spin-off posts:
1. The “Special Relationship” is a Lie: How British Leaders Misunderstand America
Is the US-UK “Special Relationship” a strategic reality or a comforting myth? This post examines the history of the transatlantic alliance, from Margaret Thatcher’s pragmatic skepticism of Ronald Reagan to Tony Blair’s fateful sycophancy towards George W. Bush. We argue that a fundamental misunderstanding of American power has been a consistent and damaging feature of modern British foreign policy.
2. Trump’s UK Trade Deal: What He Really Wants from the NHS
Beyond the political theatre, Donald Trump’s visit is a business trip. This article cuts through the noise to focus on the economic objectives of the MAGA movement. We break down the arguments around chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated beef and expose the long-held ambition of American healthcare corporations to gain access to the lucrative contracts within Britain’s National Health Service.
3. American Money, British Streets: Who Funded the London Far-Right Protests?
The massive far-right demonstration in London was not a purely domestic event. This investigation follows the money, exploring the deep financial and ideological ties between British street movements and a powerful network of right-wing, often evangelical, funders in the United States. We examine the role of oligarchs like Elon Musk and the strategy of exporting America’s culture war to destabilize its allies.
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