Burnham could have awkward first meeting with Trump after Irish unification comments

ANDY BURNHAM AND Donald Trump will give speeches to the United Nations Assembly in New York today after the pair meet face-to-face for the first time since the British prime minister took office.

Burnham’s previous criticism of the US president, Trump’s recent comments about Irish unification, hostility to UK immigration and clean energy policies could make it diplomatically awkward.

But the special relationship is as strong as ever, Burnham claims, as he said he could trust Trump.

“When you come into this job, you realise how deep this relationship is.

“We trust our allies. Of course, we do.”

Asked if he trusted Trump personally, the prime minister replied: “Yes.”

Burnham has been critical of the US president in the past, including saying – as rioters stormed the US Capitol in 2021 – that “any UK politician who gave Trump the time of day should be ashamed right now”.

Before their first conversation, Trump had suggested he knew little about Burnham beyond that he was “very liberal” and the mayor of a “town”.

Burnham told journalists: “Politicians say things throughout their career, but now the important thing is to focus on the moment you are in, and I did say to the president in our first phone call, I said Mr President, Manchester isn’t ‘some town’. I said ‘this is Manchester’.”

Advertisement

Trump’s speech

Trump is expected to claim he is winning both on the battlefield and as a peacemaker today in his speech to the United Nations, which is overshadowed by growing spillover from his stalled war against Iran.

He will likely not hold back in renewing his frequent boasts that under him the United States is “the hottest country” in the world.

He is also expected to seek to justify the Iran war, which has so far failed to fulfil White House objectives and provoked widespread economic damage over the Strait of Hormuz’s closure.

But the self-styled peacemaker could equally use the UN stage to tout his controversial efforts to end the Gaza conflict and his ongoing effort to bring more Arab countries into the Abraham Accords with Israel.

The keynote speech at the start of the UN General Assembly High-level week will provide Trump with a big platform to renew his frequent assaults on the global body.

Last year’s speech was characterised by Trump’s extraordinary accusations of UN sabotage when an escalator in the New York headquarters briefly stopped working and the teleprompter glitched.

Trump has regularly attacked the UN and its leader António Guterres since returning to office, although Washington last week reportedly paid $725 million (€630.98 million) into its budget, avoiding the embarrassment of losing some of its voting rights.

He is also likely to meet scepticism over his claims of a historic win for the United States when a security deal is signed Tuesday for a US presence in Greenland – a territory of Denmark that Trump repeatedly threatened, driving bitter divisions through longtime US-led alliances.

As well as his tête-à-tête with Burnham, Trump will hold side meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Japanese premier Sanae Takaichi and Venezuela’s interim leader Delcy Rodriguez.

Rodriguez has governed under intense American pressure since her predecessor Nicolás Maduro was captured by US forces in January.

With reporting by AFP