Donald Trump held a surreal Christmas chat with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer last month, that will likely go down in history as one of the most bizarre diplomatic exchanges ever.
While the official readout of the call was predictably diplomatic — both men reaffirming the ‘close and historic’ relationship between the UK and the US, as well as the need for continued support for Ukraine — behind the polished language, the conversation reportedly took wild turns, with Trump often veering off on tangents.
The moment that truly baffled the PM and his team came when Trump became fixated on the issue of dead birds flying into wind turbines in the US.
Which then escalated to him joking that the coyotes were becoming so ‘fat’ from their feasting on the dead birds that they might need to be given ‘weight-loss drugs’ to curb the problem.
It wasn’t quite the type of diplomatic discourse anyone was expecting, especially as Sir Keir tried to steer the conversation back to the more pressing matters of international security and his upcoming trip to Washington.
In another unexpected detours, Trump recounted meeting the Prince of Wales at the reopening ceremony of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
The former president praised William’s appearance, describing his beard as ‘modern,’ before complimenting Starmer’s wife, Victoria, calling her ‘beautiful’ and the PMs ‘greatest asset’.
Then, as if jumping from one subject to the next like a man on a mission, Trump segued into discussing his golf course in Scotland, offering up a series of casual remarks on its condition and his personal involvement.
Whether it was the lack of any clear diplomatic purpose or simply Trump’s well-known love of self-promotion, the call continued its unpredictable course.
Number 10 and the Foreign Office are preparing to offer Trump an invitation to the UK for a state visit once he is back in the White House in January, with the backing of Buckingham Palace.
This is likely seen by Sir Keir as an opportunity to strike up a strong personal relationship with Trump that benefits the UK.
The Prime Minister faces challenges in securing a positive relationship with Trump, who backed both Brexit and Boris Johnson, the PM’s former political rival.
Meanwhile, the majority of Sir Keir’s cabinet ministers, including Foreign Secretary David Lammy, have issued strong criticisms and personal insults towards Trump in the past, making efforts more difficult.
Lammy last month tried to brush off the impact of his past criticism of Trump, insisting he had a good relationship with the returning US president despite branding him a ‘woman-hating, neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath’.
Another threat to Starmer comes from Trump’s close pal, Elon Musk who last night launched another salvo against Labour and Sir Keir Starmer today, accusing the PM of being ‘complicit’ in crimes carried out by sex abuse gangs.
The multi-billionaire X owner launched a tirade against the PM and the UK government on Friday centered on historic crimes where groups of British Asian men targeted teenage girls.
Mr Musk, a senior adviser to incoming US president Donald Trump, spent a large chunk of the US east coast night on his platform bombarding followers with his thoughts on UK politics.
He criticised Sir Keir and safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips before backing a madcap call for King Charles to unilaterally dissolve the government and call an election.
And later he accused Sir Kier, who was director of public prosecutions (DPP) between 2008 and 2013, of having allowed criminals to get away with abuse.
‘Starmer must go and he must face charges for his complicity in the worst mass crime in the history of Britain (sic),’ he said.
However, Labour ministers finally emerged to hit back at Mr Musk.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said his slew of tweets were ‘misjudged and certainly misinformed’.
And asked about the Tesla owner’s criticisms, Health Minister Andrew Gwynne told LBC: ‘Elon Musk is an American citizen and perhaps ought to focus on issues on the other side of the Atlantic.’
In a fresh twist, Donald Trump last night criticised the UK’s move away from oil and gas production, urging the Government to ‘open up’ the North Sea and get rid of ‘windmills’.
The US president-elect said in a social media post that Britain is ‘making a very big mistake’ on its energy policy.
On his platform Truth Social, Mr Trump posted a link to an article about Labour’s decision to increase taxes for North Sea oil and gas producers.
In October, the UK Government said it would raise a so-called windfall tax on companies drilling in the North Sea to 38 percent from 35 percent.
Labour wants to use the income from oil and gas taxation to raise money for more renewable energy projects.
Mr Trump wrote: ‘The U.K. is making a very big mistake. Open up the North Sea. Get rid of Windmills!’
The president-elect was responding to a November announcement by US oil firm Apache, which said it will exit the North Sea.
Apache said the windfall tax has made its UK operations ‘uneconomic’.
However, oil companies have been making a gradual exit from the North Sea for decades as the basin slowly gets used up.
Production from the region peaked at 4.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 1999 to about 1.3 million today.
The UK Government wants to decarbonise the power system by 2030, meaning reducing the use of gas-fired power plants and replacing it with renewable energy.
The plan includes ramping up new wind turbine projects to quadruple energy generation from offshore wind over the next half-decade.
Mr Trump, on the other hand, has promised to increase US and oil and gas production when he re-enters the White House.
Apache, a Texan company, said in November that it will cease all production at its UK assets by December 2029.
It said this is ‘well ahead of what would have been an otherwise reasonable time frame’.
US oil giant ExxonMobil exited the North Sea in July last year.
And Shell and Equinor said they would combine their offshore oil and gas assets in the region into a new company.
Zoe Yujnovich, director of Shell’s integrated gas and upstream business, said at the time that the decision was partly because it is ‘no longer the prolific basin that it once was’.
A Government spokesperson said: ‘Our priority is a fair, orderly and prosperous transition in the North Sea in line with our climate and legal obligations, and we will work with the sector to protect current and future generations of good jobs.
‘We need to replace our dependency on unstable fossil fuel markets with clean, homegrown power controlled in Britain – which is the best way to protect billpayers and boost our energy independence.’
The North Sea Transition Authority were approached for comment.