The impromptu press call on the steps of Turnberry with Keir Starmer and Donald Trump provided a historic moment for UK, US and Middle East politics.
Amid the rambling of the US president, almost drowned out by the bagpipe music commissioned to welcome the prime minister and his wife, Lady Victoria, there was a significant shift in policy.
Trump essentially greenlit Sir Keir recognising a Palestinian state and almost simultaneously rewrote US Republican Party policy on Israel and supporting Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Trump publicly dismissed the Israeli prime minister’s claim that “nobody is starving in Gaza”.
He said that “you can’t fake pictures” of starving children and, alongside Sir Keir, made ending the hunger his number one priority.
The president then refused to praise the Israeli PM’s tactics, saying that “nobody is doing very well there” and calling the whole Gaza crisis “a mess”.
This is a significant departure from the absolute support he has given the Israeli government previously. Netanyahu has been a regular guest of his in Florida and a close political ally.
But even more important was Trump telling Starmer that he did not mind him “taking a position” on a Palestinian state.
The issue had been an incredibly vexatious one for Sir Keir. He has a divided cabinet arguing over it, due to meet in an emergency session this week. Most of his party is demanding that it happen. More than 250 MPs from nine different political parties have backed it. And worse still, Jeremy Corbyn is threatening him on the left on the issue with a new political party.
One of the biggest problems with the UK following French president Emmanuel Macron’s lead last week was US opposition – voiced on Friday by secretary of state Marco Rubio.
Now the US president, Rubio’s boss, has told Starmer he can go ahead if he wants – it does not bother him.
This takes a huge amount of heat off Sir Keir and means much of the political danger he faces from within his party is reduced.
Trump makes no bones about the fact that he likes Sir Keir, even if they disagree politically on many things. Now he is repaying Starmer’s patience in press conferences and willingness to massage the president’s ego on every occasion in full.
And for those who watched the painful official press conference after their formal meeting, those remarks on the Turnberry steps were a pre-reward for Sir Keir’s patience and forbearance.
Underneath, the prime minister must have been gritting his teeth as the US president toyed with him throughout.
There was Labour London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan being “a nasty man”; there was the advice on how to beat Nigel Farage in an election (clue: it involved Starmer doing the opposite to what his government is doing now); there were the lectures on immigration and not putting inheritance tax on farmers.
Throughout, Sir Keir sat with a smile on his face, not wavering in his warmth to Trump but occasionally standing up for himself on certain issues without directly criticising the president.
The prime minister has learnt the hard way that insulting the world’s most powerful politician is not the way to get what you want. He and many of his cabinet did that during the first Trump term.
The truth is that the US president likes a mixture of sycophancy along with someone willing to defend themselves politely. Starmer is here for that, every so often pointing out his own policy successes or saying Sir Sadiq is his friend “actually”.
But the main aim is for the love shown to Trump to reduce tariffs on UK exports to the US, and he can persuade a reluctant president to be more helpful on issues like Ukraine and, even more importantly, the Middle East.
So successful has Starmer been that we are already seeing leaders like Germany’s Friedrich Merz and Nato secretary general Marc Rutte follow his example.
Starmer has proven time and again that he is a superb diplomat who has won the friendship and admiration of everyone from Ursula von der Leyen to Trump. Perhaps only he could have got the US president to shift so much on Middle Eastern policy.
