Dealing with Donald Trump was never going to be easy. The mercurial President makes life tricky for his friends as much as for his enemies, and he has certainly added to Sir Keir Starmer’s difficulties.

The Prime Minister has won plaudits for his handling of Trump . The two men, it is often said, make an unlikely pairing – yet they have formed a bond of some sort, and Starmer seems to have genuine influence on the White House.

That influence, though, is limited and always will be. More than normally, this President is singlehandedly responsible for the state of the world and no junior partner can fundamentally shift him.

One reason for this is the growing relative power of the US. As the American economy has boomed Europe’s has stagnated, including in the UK, while the EU has fa

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