(Headline USA) British Foreign Secretary David Cameron delivered what may be the first official state visit of former President Donald Trump’s second presidential term as globalists raised the temperature on their rhetoric to solicit $60 billion in additional funding that has been blocked by House Republicans.
The U.K. government said it was “standard practice” for government ministers to meet allied nations’ opposition leaders in election years.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken met in February with U.K. Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, who is the favorite to become prime minister in an election later this year. When Cameron was prime minister in 2012, he met the then-Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Despite having previously made personally disparaging comments about Trump’s character, the Tory leader arrived hat-in-hand desperate to urge the presumptive GOP presidential nominee to use his sway within the party.
Trump reportedly remained skeptical as Cameron headed onward to press press senior Republicans directly in Washington, D.C.
The U.K.’s Foreign Office confirmed the meeting with Trump, which was described as “productive.” However, British officials did not further elaborate on the meeting went.
Cameron and Trump have had several notable differences of opinion in the past. Cameron called Trump’s proposal during his first presidential campaign to ban Muslims from the U.S. “divisive, stupid and wrong.”
Cameron was British prime minister during the U.K.’s 2016 referendum on whether to leave the European Union—a move he opposed but Trump enthusiastically supported. Cameron resigned after voters narrowly rejected his call to remain in the bloc.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak unexpectedly brought Cameron back into government last year as Britain’s top diplomat.
Some have argued that the amassing of U.S. equipment and, potentially, troops at the Ukrainian border, with the country essentially facing a stalemate in its war against Russia, is intended rather to distract Russian President Vladimir Putin and to drain his military resources as analysts fear a potentially more serious military action by Russia-allied China.
However, with voters in the dark about the true military objectives, Republicans would likely face serious electoral backlash from their constituents if they supported further American involvement in the regional boondoggle.
The lack of oversight concerning Ukraine funding and the country’s reputation for corruption and election-meddling make hawkish claims that the operation is about defending Ukrainian “democracy” an even harder sell.
Cameron maintained that “success for Ukraine and failure for Putin are vital for American and European security” in a statement ahead of his trip.
“This will show that borders matter, that aggression doesn’t pay and that countries like Ukraine are free to choose their own future,” he said. “The alternative would only encourage Putin in further attempts to re-draw European borders by force, and would be heard clearly in Beijing, Tehran and North Korea.”
While in Washington, Cameron planned to hold talks with lawmakers including Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., but he had no scheduled meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., whose support is vital to the spending bill.
In a video posted last week on Twitter, Cameron said: “Speaker Johnson can make it happen in Congress.”
In February, however, he stuck his foot in his mouth by likening GOP holdouts to those who sought to appease Nazi Germany prior to World War II and urging them not to show “the weakness displayed against Hitler” in the 1930s.
Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., addressed those comments on Saturday, saying Cameron “needs to worry about his own country—and, frankly, he can kiss my a**.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene tells David Cameron to kiss my a** 🙆 pic.twitter.com/OYHryTZ1Kr
— Really Ryan (@Reallyryan88) April 6, 2024
In talks with officials including Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Cameron was also due to discuss the Israel—Hamas war, including efforts to reach a “sustainable cease-fire” and get more aid into Gaza.
The U.K. is sending a Royal Navy ship to the eastern Mediterranean to bolster efforts to open a maritime aid corridor between Cyprus and a temporary U.S.-built pier in Gaza.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
