Starmer to visit US for second time as prime minister – but will he meet Harris and Trump?
Sir Keir Starmer will travel to Washington this coming week for a bilateral meeting with President Biden.
The trip to the White House, on Friday, will be the prime minister’s second visit since he was elected in July.
In a statement, the White House said the leaders would focus on “global issues of mutual interest”.
“The leaders will have an in-depth discussion… including continuing robust support to Ukraine in its defence against Russian aggression, securing a hostage release and ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza, protecting international shipping in the Red Sea from Iranian-backed Houthi threats, and advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the White House statement said.
It continued: “They will also discuss opportunities to strengthen US-UK cooperation to secure supply chains and increase climate resilience. President Biden will underscore the importance of continuing to strengthen the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom.”
The UK is heavily invested in several live geopolitical challenges which all predate Sir Keir’s premiership.
The hope, according to sources, is that mutual progress can be made on the various challenges with the outgoing Biden administration.
Britain and the US have cooperated closely on Ukraine, leading a Western alliance that has, at times, shown some reluctance in its continued support against Russian aggression.
On protecting international shipping in the Red Sea against continued Houthi attacks from Yemen, the UK has been a key partner for the US in a mission that’s shown limited success.
The potential for some divergence between the two leaders could come over Gaza.
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July: Starmer backs ‘special relationship’
Last week, the UK announced that it would suspend the export of some arms to Israel because of the risk that they could be used in non-compliance with international humanitarian law.
US government lawyers have not come to the same conclusions about how Israel is using weapons in Gaza but this week a State Department spokesman said the UK was making a sovereign decision that it was entirely entitled to make.
Notably, however, a foreign policy advisor to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump struck a different tone.
Robert O’Brien – who is likely to be in a Trump White House if he wins in November – said that a UK-US special relationship would be under strain if the UK restricted weapons sales to Israel.
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The relationship between Mr Biden and Sir Keir reflects their political alignment. During his first visit to the White House, just days after taking office, President Biden, who was then the Democratic candidate for November’s election, spoke warmly of the much coveted “special relationship”.
“I kind of see you guys as the knot tying the transatlantic alliance together, the closer you are with Europe. We know where you are, you know where we are,” Mr Biden told Sir Keir.
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How does the US election work?
No meetings have been announced between Sir Keir and vice president Kamala Harris, the new Democratic Party candidate for the November election, though it’s possible she will be part of the bilateral meetings with President Biden.
A significant moment would be a meeting between Sir Keir and Mr Trump.
No plans have been announced but such a meeting would be seen as diplomatically savvy, especially if a Harris meeting materialises, and it would not be without precedent.
Former prime minister David Cameron met Republican nominee Mitt Romney in July 2012 and Gordon Brown met Barack Obama when he was the Democratic Party candidate in 2008.
Sir Keir’s visit comes at the end of a week in which US secretary of state Antony Blinken will meet Foreign Secretary David Lammy in London.
Gaza will be a key focus but Mr Blinken will travel with ambassador Katherine Tai, the US trade representative.
Trade and technology are set to be on the agenda too.
The UK is still seeking to formalise a post-Brexit trade partnership with the US.
Elon Musk could be on track for a $1trn pay packet.
Tesla shareholders have approved the whopping financial package for the CEO – who’s already worth an estimated $491bn – if he hits a series of ambitious targets over the next 10 years.
But that $1trn figure (or £761,910,000,000) – which is both one thousand billion and one million million – is almost impossible to imagine for most people.
Even so, we have drilled down into the numbers and examined what you can do with a trillion US dollars – and it turns out, quite a lot.
Show me the money
Laid end to end, a trillion one-dollar bills would cover a distance of approximately 156 billion metres.
That could wrap around the equator 3,890 times, easily reach the sun from Earth (around 149.6 million km) or loop from Earth to the moon 405 times.
That many one-dollar notes could cover a massive area (roughly 10,339 km squared), meaning you could blanket nearly all of Lebanon or Jamaica in bills.
Spend it on sport
You could splash out on virtually all of the world’s major sporting leagues.
The clubs which make up the Premier League are relatively cheap ($30bn), and even when snapping up the UEFA Champions League clubs and the big five top divisions of Spain, Italy, Germany, and France, there’s still $858bn left in the kitty.
The four major US sports leagues for ice hockey, baseball, basketball, and American football (NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL) have a rough valuation of $544bn, according to Sportico.
But then add the IPL cricket league ($120bn) and F1 ($23.1bn) and Musk still has change from an estimated total spend of $829.7bn.
Elon Musk is in the money if he hits targets set by Tesla’s shareholders. File pic: AP
Take over Tesla’s rivals
He could buy up the top 15 largest publicly traded automakers (excluding Tesla) by market capitalisation.
They would include firms like Japan’s Toyota ($275bn), Chinese automaker BYD ($120bn), and luxury brands like Ferrari ($81bn) and Mercedes-Benz ($62bn), as well as BMW ($52bn), Volkswagen ($50bn) and Ford ($48bn).
But there would still be a little change left over; the total bill would be an eye-watering $992bn.
Buy up San Diego
He could buy up every single residential property in San Diego County – valued at a total of $1trn. Seattle is just slightly out of reach at $1.1trn, according to recent data from real estate firm Zillow.
But if he wanted to buy big – there is always Tennessee. The total value of homes in the US state is estimated at $957bn. Or there is Maryland, which at $1.01trn could be bought if he can find a little more cash behind the sofa.
Sadly, he would struggle to scoop up London’s entire housing stock, which in February was valued at just under £2trn ($2.53trn), according to agents Savills.
Cities like New York ($4.6trn) and Los Angeles ($3.9trn) are also not within his budget, hosting America’s most expensive residential markets.
Do something charitable?
There is always the possibility Musk could follow in the footsteps of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who intends to give away 99% of his vast fortune over the next 20 years.
He could give every single man, woman, and child in the US a share of his cash pile. They would receive approximately $2,917.32 (£2,223.29), based on a population estimate of 342.7 million.
Although it would be roughly $14,348.79 (£10,935.20) for every person (roughly 69.6 million) in the UK.
If he wanted to give the entire globe an early Christmas present, then based on the rough world population estimate of 8.2 billion, everyone would receive $121.80 (£92.87).
Pay off the credit card
With $1trn, he could instantly rewrite history and erase debt interest payments and the government debt from dozens of the world’s sovereign nations.
Or Musk could wipe out the debts of Singapore ($1trn) or South Korea ($0.99trn) in one go, according to figures from the International Monetary Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook (Oct 2025).
But when it comes to the biggest debt-laden countries, $1trn would not even touch the sides.
The US has $38.3trn of government debt (just over one third of the total global debt pile) while the UK has a modest $4.1trn.
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