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When Britain’s overseas secretary, David Cameron, went to Washington on Tuesday, he made all the standard stops, from the State Division to Capitol Hill. But it surely was his pilgrimage to Palm Seaside, Fla., the place he met former President Donald J. Trump for dinner on Monday night at Mar-a-Lago, that grabbed many of the consideration.
Mr. Cameron is the primary high British authorities official to satisfy with Mr. Trump since he left the White Home. His go to — ostensibly to persuade Mr. Trump into backing extra American navy help to Ukraine — attests to Mr. Trump’s affect over a far-right faction of Home Republicans who’ve been holding up a vote.
It additionally underscores how the electoral calendar is affecting political dynamics on either side of the Atlantic. Mr. Cameron, a onetime prime minister, has emerged as nearly 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 most important hurdle to the continuation of much-needed American help for the Ukrainian navy.
“We had a very good assembly,” Mr. Cameron stated of Mr. Trump, whereas standing alongside Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken after their very own session on the State Division 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 help to Ukraine. He stated he delivered the identical message he provides to different American leaders: “The very best factor we are able to do that 12 months 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 an announcement saying they mentioned “the necessity for NATO international locations to satisfy their protection spending necessities and ending the killing in Ukraine.” Additionally they shared their “mutual admiration for the late Queen Elizabeth II.”
To date, Mr. Cameron’s lobbying marketing campaign in Washington has been met with decidedly blended outcomes. Whereas he stated he regarded ahead to conferences with Republicans within the Home 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 Home vote on navy help to Ukraine.
The 2 males final met in December, when Mr. Cameron additionally noticed Consultant Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right Georgia Republican who stridently opposes additional help. 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 seen his visits to Capitol Hill with “nice trepidation,” noting that, “It’s not for overseas politicians to inform legislators out of the country 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 Get together chief, Keir Starmer, at a safety convention in Munich.
Nonetheless, there’s little routine about assembly a former president on the Palm Seaside property that served as his winter White Home and continues to be his political bastion. Mr. Trump used Mar-a-Lago for summit conferences with overseas leaders like President Xi Jinping of China. Extra just lately, he welcomed a like-minded chief, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary.
Amongst Republicans, a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago has at instances been an train in political validation. Kevin McCarthy, the previous Home 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 threat, 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 Overseas Workplace. “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.” However 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 power and affect to British overseas coverage,” Mr. Fraser stated.
Leslie Vinjamuri, the director of the U.S. and Americas program at Chatham Home, the British analysis establishment, stated, “It could not really feel tasteful, nevertheless it’s shrewd, pragmatic politics of the type Britain particularly has traditionally been so good at, and possibly of the type that can work finest with Trump.”
“There’s a lot at stake in U.S. protection of Ukraine and Europe’s safety,” she added, “and albeit, I feel the hassle 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 brief ban on permitting Muslims to enter america.
Requested in Parliament whether or not Mr. Trump needs to be banned from Britain, Mr. Cameron demurred however stated, “His remarks are divisive, silly and mistaken, and I feel if he came visiting 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 2002 Winter Olympic Video games in Salt Lake Metropolis, questioned whether or not London was able to play host to the summer season video games, citing studies about safety considerations.
“We’re holding an Olympic Video games in one of many busiest, most lively, bustling cities wherever on the planet,” Mr. Cameron shot again. “After all, it’s simpler for those who maintain an Olympic Video games in the course of nowhere.”
Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.
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