LONDON (Reuters) – There is a good chance that the United States and Britain will strike a “great agreement” on trade due to President Donald Trump’s love of the country and its royal family, his deputy JD Vance said in an interview with UnHerd on Tuesday.
Britain was spared the most punitive treatment in Trump’s initial tariff announcement, due to the two sides enjoying a largely balanced trade relationship. Still, British imports in the U.S. now incur a 10% charge while its steel and car sectors incur a rate of 25%.
Officials from both countries have been locked in talks for weeks that initially focused on boosting cooperation on artificial intelligence and tech but could also expand to include food and other goods.
Vance told UnHerd that the U.S. administration was working very hard with Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government.
“The President really loves the United Kingdom,” he said. “He loved the Queen. He admires and loves the King. It is a very important relationship. And he’s a businessman and has a number of important business relationships in (Britain).”
Citing a U.S. cultural affinity for Britain, Vance said: “I think there’s a good chance that, yes, we’ll come to a great agreement that’s in the best interest of both countries”.
Vance, who has taken a combative approach to Europe since he became vice president in January, reiterated his stance that he wanted Europe as a whole to increase its security spending, and once again criticised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Vance, responding to Zelenskiy’s recent comments that he had somehow justified Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said he had condemned Russia since 2022 but had since tried to understand the strategic objectives of both sides to find a solution.
“That doesn’t mean you morally support the Russian cause, or that you support the full-scale invasion, but you do have to try to understand what are their strategic red lines, in the same way that you have to try to understand what the Ukrainians are trying to get out of the conflict,” he said.
“I think it’s sort of absurd for Zelenskiy to tell the [American] government, which is currently keeping his entire government and war effort together, that we are somehow on the side of the Russians.”
He said that kind of rhetoric was “certainly not productive”.
(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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