Donald Trump on Keir Starmer: ‘I actually think he’s very nice’

After months of diary-juggling, British PM Keir Starmer finally got his meeting with the man who could be the next US president. The political equivalent of the Rumble in the Jungle happened last night when Starmer sat down for a two-hour dinner with Donald Trump, following the prime minister’s speech at the UN General Assembly. Details of what Trump and Starmer talked about are scant: the official read-out merely says they discussed the “longstanding friendship” between Britain and America. But we do know that among attendees at the Trump Tower dinner was David Lammy, who once called his host “a woman-hating, neo-Nazi sympathizing sociopath.” How times change eh?

Prior to the meeting, Trump did offer some thoughts on the prime minister when he held a press conference and Christopher Hope of GB News asked him what he made of Starmer. “I’m going to see him in about an hour so I have to be nice right?” began Trump. “But I actually think he’s very nice.”

He added: “I think he ran a great race, he did very well. It’s very early, but he’s popular. And I’ll be seeing him and send your regards.” Clearly he’s not been following the opinions polls. Hope then asked whether Farage should be playing a “bigger role” to which Trump replied:

Well I think Nigel is great. I mean I’ve known him for a long time. He had a great election too, picked up a lot of seats, more seats than he was allowed to have actually. They acknowledged that he won, but for some reason you have a very strange system over there — you might win them, but you don’t get them. Nigel is a fantastic person.

Is Donald Trump coming out in favor of electoral reform? You can watch the exchange below:

This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.