EGN NEWS DESK
When Britain’s international secretary, David Cameron, went to Washington on Tuesday, he made all the standard stops, from the State Department to Capitol Hill. But it was his pilgrimage to Palm Beach, Fla., the place he met former President Donald J. Trump for dinner on Monday night at Mar-a-Lago, that grabbed a lot of the consideration.
Mr. Cameron is the primary high British authorities official to satisfy with Mr. Trump since he left the White House. His go to — ostensibly to persuade Mr. Trump into backing extra American navy assist to Ukraine — attests to Mr. Trump’s affect over a far-right faction of House Republicans who’ve been holding up a vote.
It additionally underscores how the electoral calendar is affecting political dynamics on each side of the Atlantic. Mr. Cameron, a onetime prime minister, has emerged as virtually a shadow British chief overseas, standing in for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who’s busy with a looming basic election at house.
In touring to satisfy Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Mr. Cameron was reaching out to a as soon as, and probably future, American president — one whose jaundiced views on Ukraine are seen as the largest hurdle to the continuation of much-needed American assist for the Ukrainian navy.
“We had assembly,” Mr. Cameron stated of Mr. Trump, whereas standing alongside Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken after their very own session on the State Department on Tuesday. “It was a personal assembly.”
Mr. Cameron stated he and Mr. Trump mentioned Ukraine, the Israel-Gaza battle and different geopolitical points, however he declined to say whether or not he had made any headway on convincing Mr. Trump to offer extra assist to Ukraine. He stated he delivered the identical message he offers to different American leaders: “The smartest thing we are able to do that yr is to maintain the Ukrainians on this combat.”
Mr. Trump has not commented on the dinner, which included Britain’s ambassador to Washington, Karen Pierce. His marketing campaign issued a press release saying they mentioned “the necessity for NATO international locations to satisfy their protection spending necessities and ending the killing in Ukraine.” They additionally shared their “mutual admiration for the late Queen Elizabeth II.”
So far, Mr. Cameron’s lobbying marketing campaign in Washington has been met with decidedly blended outcomes. While he stated he regarded ahead to conferences with Republicans within the House and Senate on Tuesday and Wednesday, he was not scheduled to satisfy with Speaker Mike Johnson, the Louisiana Republican who’s the pivotal determine in scheduling a House vote on navy assist to Ukraine.
The two males final met in December, when Mr. Cameron additionally noticed Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right Georgia Republican who stridently opposes additional assist. Two months later, she lashed out at Mr. Cameron, saying he had accused Republicans of appeasing President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
“David Cameron wants to fret about his personal nation,” Ms. Taylor Greene stated, including an epithet.
At his information convention with Mr. Blinken, Mr. Cameron acknowledged that he considered his visits to Capitol Hill with “nice trepidation,” noting that, “It’s not for international politicians to inform legislators abroad what to do.”
Mr. Cameron performed down the Mar-a-Lago assembly, saying it was routine for senior British and American officers to satisfy opposition candidates. As prime minister, he famous, he met with the Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, when he got here to London on a fund-raising journey. Mr. Blinken met the Labour Party chief, Keir Starmer, at a safety convention in Munich.
Still, there’s little routine about assembly a former president on the Palm Beach property that served as his winter White House and continues to be his political bastion. Mr. Trump used Mar-a-Lago for summit conferences with international leaders like President Xi Jinping of China. More just lately, he welcomed a like-minded chief, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary.
Among Republicans, a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago has at instances been an train in political validation. Kevin McCarthy, the previous House speaker, went there three weeks after the assault on the Capitol in January 2021, in a fruitless bid to win Mr. Trump’s favor. Allies like Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor, and Kari Lake, the Arizona TV anchor-turned-politician, are common guests.
Diplomats in Britain stated Mr. Cameron’s go to was a danger, however attribute of how he has approached his job from the beginning. On points from Ukraine to Israel’s navy marketing campaign in Gaza, he has pushed the envelope in his public statements. With Britain’s Conservative authorities lagging Labour by double digits within the polls and going through voters within the fall, some stated Mr. Cameron had little to lose.
“Flattering Trump about his significance and significance on this subject is an astute transfer on Cameron’s half,” stated Simon Fraser, a former head of Britain’s Foreign Office. “Let’s see whether or not it delivers.”
Mr. Fraser predicted that Mr. Cameron’s go to would get a blended reception in Britain: applauded by those that view it primarily by a foreign-policy lens; criticized by these, he stated, “who can’t stand Trump.” But he stated Mr. Cameron’s entree to Mr. Trump spoke to his community of worldwide contacts, a legacy of his time as prime minister.
“He’s bringing extra attain and vitality and impression to British international coverage,” Mr. Fraser stated.
Leslie Vinjamuri, the director of the U.S. and Americas program at Chatham House, the British analysis establishment, stated, “It might not really feel tasteful, however it’s shrewd, pragmatic politics of the type Britain particularly has traditionally been so good at, and doubtless of the type that may work greatest with Trump.”
“There is lots at stake in U.S. protection of Ukraine and Europe’s safety,” she added, “and albeit, I feel the trouble to affect the U.S. could also be wiser and more practical than the aspiration to Trump-proof Europe.”
Mr. Cameron has had a bumpy historical past with Mr. Trump. In 2016, as prime minister, he condemned Mr. Trump’s marketing campaign proposal to put a short lived ban on permitting Muslims to enter the United States.
Asked in Parliament whether or not Mr. Trump must be banned from Britain, Mr. Cameron demurred however stated, “His remarks are divisive, silly and mistaken, and I feel if he came around our nation, I feel he’d unite us all in opposition to him.”
Even Mr. Cameron’s welcoming of Mr. Romney in 2012 had its awkward moments. Mr. Romney, who had organized the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, questioned whether or not London was able to play host to the summer time video games, citing stories about safety issues.
“We are holding an Olympic Games in one of many busiest, most energetic, bustling cities wherever on the planet,” Mr. Cameron shot again. “Of course, it’s simpler should you maintain an Olympic Games in the midst of nowhere.”
Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.
