One senior European diplomat said “we are trying to engage as many Republicans as possible and people around” Trump to try and win his ear, but that “it’s very difficult.”
Some U.K. government officials believe Britain is uniquely placed among European nations to bend Trump’s ear. The ex-president has shown himself to be something of an Anglophile and has frequently expressed his admiration for the royal family.
Britain also has a long-standing record of meeting its NATO defense spending requirements, and ministers hope the U.K. can lead a coalition of Germany, France and Poland to show the U.S. that Europe can and will pull its weight. Poland, like several other eastern European countries, already spends well above NATO’s 2 percent target.
Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director at the London-based defense think tank RUSI, said that “it’s likely, as was the case under the last Trump administration, that there’s more potential for a relationship with the U.K.”
He added: “I think the way the American debate is going is that the more Europeans do for their own defense, the less the Americans will feel they have to do.
“All Americans across the aisle, particularly the Republicans, but also many Democrats are saying: ‘Look, Europeans have got to help us — the main struggle we have in the next period is with China’.”
