He needs to show he is a strong defender of UK interests. The US President despises weak leaders.
He could begin by telling the President the Falklands are British and the people there want to stay British. The UK has the navy and airforce to protect them from Argentina.
He should say the UK is backing the Falklands in getting oil out from the new Sealion field.
He should say he is reversing the give away of Diego Garcia. The UK will keep the freehold of the base and will honour the Treaty with the US over its use.
He should praise the Greenland Agreement.
He should reassure the President the UK is going to meet its NATO spending commitments . He should scold the President for his comments on our navy and remind him of the support and sacrifices the UK military have given in military coalition with the US.
He should seek review of tariffs imposed by the US against the UK and remind him of past intentions to have a free trade agreement.
September 22, 2026
However.
A man clearly out of his depth, will likely flounder around.
I’m sure he’ll be keen to let the President know he is just an ordinary Northern bloke, in a T-shirt, who knows how to run the buses.
Perhaps he’ll sing him a few lines from a Smith’s song!
A rigid 1970’s ‘Union rule must be obeyed’ Burnham, meeting President Trump, it should be interesting if nothing else.
September 22, 2026
As a Fabian he’ll do none of these things. He can’t tell Trump we can protect the Falklands because we can’t.
I bet we keep Chagos but pay Mauritius an annual payment of many millions in compensation.
Trump will wonder what has happened to this once great country.
September 22, 2026
It depends whether Burnham wants to placate Trump (or avoid upsetting him) – or whether he wants to put forward a very different viewpoint.
He could point out Trump has reneged on his campaign promises about forever wars, fixing the border and improving the economy. He could say that unconditional support for Israel is completely wrecking the world.
I suspect Burnham will say whatever he thinks will get favourable press coverage in the UK.
Trump is seen to be a complete loon now. So whatever Burnham says will make little difference.
September 22, 2026
More like what should Donald Trump say to Mr Burnham.
Your Liebour party is bringing the U.K. to its knees so to show any credibility call for an General Election and let the people decide if they want you as head of state
September 22, 2026
Indeed he should listen and obey not talk.
I doubt Trump is very interested in his tea making methods (milk first!), pork scratchings, crisps, picked onions or his £2 pus fare caps. Ditching net zero, a decent defence policy and stop throttling the economy with every policy should be the very fist priorities.
September 22, 2026
Perhaps but then perhaps he should just listen to his suggestions and say:- Yes Donald I will ditch Net Zero and drill and frack, I will close the borders and deter all illegal entry and reduce legal immigration hugely, I will deport all who come who are unsuitable, criminal & likely to be financial liabilities, I will increase our defences and spend the money wisely for a change, I will deter crime and carton real criminals, abolish Sir Kier evil two tier justice system and DEI and the ECHR, I will stop the judges wrecking border controls, I will restore free speech, reduce taxes, halve the size of the state, abandon all EU realignment, abandon Erasmus, I will release crime figure broken down by nationality, I will release figures on the very many injuries caused by the various Covid vaccines, I will abandon the folic acid lunacy, I will give Lucy Letby her appeal and Lucy Connolly a formal apology for her absurdly harsh sentence, I will reverse my sanctions on Israel, I will get our energy cost down to UK levels of about 1/4 of our current levels.
Yes Mr Trump I can remembers just 180 degree U turns on almost every single issue Starmer and myself took then. Thanks for the sound advice Donald.
September 22, 2026
And abandon the Chagos lunacy, the VAT on school fees, repeal the workers rights act and the tenants rights act, the 20% IHT on farmers, and trading companies, the benefit policies that mean work so often does not pay, ditch DEI, ditch the hugely damaging equalities Act… so very many “shoot yourselves in the foot policies” from Labour it is hard to recall them all.
September 22, 2026
All agreed and he should also tell him to stop rocking the boat on Ulster.
Having said that he seems to have done the right thing in assisting the Saudis in their current difficulty. He also authorised US use of our bases, probably learning from Starmer’s mistake.
Can’t tolerate Burnham or Labour, nor Trump and co anymore either – the latter a great shame: all thrown away.
September 22, 2026
He can say those things, but post Suez Trump knows we don’t dictate anything to the US and we’re not important in terms of US elections. He also knows we’ve made ourselves dependent on US natural gas, cut ourselves off from cheaper Russian hydrocarbons and are in economic trouble.
I’d like Burnham to say we support Trump trying to renew the Alaska accords and won’t upset the apple cart, because we want to end the NATO war with Russia rather than escalate it. But that is very unlikely!
September 22, 2026
JR says “He should scold the President for his comments on our navy and remind him of the support and sacrifices the UK military have given in military coalition with the US.”
He should actually say in private to Trump yes I agree with you on the poor state of our navy (and our defence forces) but we will now address these shortcomings urgently. Please can you refrain from out these painful and obvious hard truths so publicly in the mean time?
September 22, 2026
I remember how you Brexiters told us we’d have a bright future working with Trump’s USA. Oh, and Canada too – the same Canada that now is working hand in hand with the EU
Reply The US is our biggest single trade partner and we sell them more than they sell us. The EU devised rules and taxes to ensure it always ran a huge surplus. This means we are mainly the customer, so we should tell them what the terms are to sell to us. Since we left the EU our dominant services exports to the rest of the world have leapt ahead.
September 22, 2026
Leaving the EU has no effect on our services exports to the rest of the world. As all Brexiters fail to grasp, leaving the EU does not make it easier to trade with the rest of the world. Leaving the EU simply makes it harder to trade with the EU.
Reply What a lie. We gave successfully negotiated new trade deals with non EU including services chapters which the EU did not do.
September 22, 2026
And whose fault was it that we didn’t achieve that?
Our wonderful labour government have done everything they could to upset our relationship with the USA – so go blame the real culprits for what has gone wrong.
September 22, 2026
‘The UK has the navy and airforce to protect [the Falklands] from from Argentina.’ I’m not sure about that.
September 22, 2026
If I was “Our Andeh” I would ask President Trump how he is going to extricate the US from its conflict with Iran without giving up the Strait of Hormuz? Follow up with the issue of the Houthi rebels further constraining Saudi oil supplies and reassure him that we will open up the North Sea once more.
I would also have the meeting away from cameras so that the President can’t go off on one.
September 22, 2026
He’s going to tell the President that he intends to deploy the British Army, and conscript the population to fight and die for the Axis Powers who are losing against our old Ally Russia.
He has the support of Rees Mogg and various other deluded fools, who do not appreciate, as the Women of Piddington do, that there is an aggressive force on our streets and by removing our young fighting men they will be given free reign to subjugate the British population remaining.
September 22, 2026
+1
September 22, 2026
Like his predecessor Mr Burnham has no foreign policy experience. Banging on about Manchesterism will mean nothing to President Trump. If Burnham manages to get a word in edge ways he should remind Trump of his election promise ‘no more foreign wars’. Both Ukraine and Iran have been major foreign policy failures resulting in significant economic difficulties for UK and Europe, not to mention the appalling loss of life and misery. Burnham should offer to work with Trump to negiotate peace settlements in both theatres of conflict. Stopping war should be our major objective and we should learn from past conflicts, many instigated by America and their allies. But overall, Burnham should be visiting America with the wise words of Henry Kissinger ringing in his ears ‘If you are an enemy of America it could be dangerous, but if you are a friend it could be fatal’.
September 22, 2026
He probably won’t mention the invasion of seaborne illegals we face on a daily basis out of embarrassment.
At least when the Vikings did it they didn’t usually stay around for long after their rape and pillaging.
No doubt our PM will sit at Trump’s feet with an admiring look on his face trying to persuade him that we really are allies to the new USA. No doubt Trump will provide a number of things that could be done to make that more possible.
Other than that, and things listed by JR, I don’t imagine the president wants anything else from us – I simply hope he will remind Burnham what a waste it is supporting Ukraine and whispering kind words to keep the war going. He knows our PM is playing to the warmakers, and no good will come of extending the war until the UK is strong enough to participate fully.
Let’s hop our PM comes home with a load of home-truths ringing in his ears.
September 22, 2026
Burnham should simply say sorry!
He should also say as a Socialist PM, of a Socialist Parliament I hate and despise anyone or any Nation that chooses democracy, freedom, resilience and self reliance above rule by a Politburo.
He should also tell POTUS that as a Socialist it is my duty to drive a wedge between old reliable willing friends so as to surrender those I lead to become subservient slaves to unelected, unaccountable elsewhere. I need the Country I lead has to be shown to reject democracy and freedoms, to treat those disciplines as the enemy
September 22, 2026
I have no idea of what’s to be gained from meeting Trump, he’s nuts, and soon to be a lame duck – he should be ignored Carney style. Neither is it a good idea to be getting involved with Saudi Arabia – I don’t see Sweden or France or Portugal or anyone else getting involved so why should we it’s only looking for trouble that we can’t afford – let the Americans and Israelis sort it out.
September 22, 2026
John, the simpler answer to your question would be he simply needs to say “sorry”.
September 22, 2026
President Trump had no choice but to get involved v Iran(Israel and Emirates/Saudi Arabia have to be protected).
The mid-term elections may place constraints on policy-making but by no means lame-ducking.
The sooner USA and Canada stop acting like schoolkids,kiss and make up and bring Canada into AUKUS
along with NZealand the safer we all shall be.Probably an open tariff-free US/Can border for starters
as for Burn’em’s drop-in a face-saving photo shoot and a bland communique is in the making
September 22, 2026
Maybe Prime Minister Burnham should ask about the barring of CNN, Politico and MS NOW from the White House ?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cje3rezd92y3o
Prime Minister Burnham might value some advice from President Trump about censorship of the Media, particularly censorship of Elon Musk’s X ?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c99kn52nx9do
September 22, 2026
Just heard President Trump address the UN GA and don’t know how any responsible sane person could align themselves with his deluded nonsense – according to himself he settled eight wars and saved millions of lives? – somebody else said ‘Nuts’
September 22, 2026
Burnham should ask to become a US state with JD Vance as our first governor. He should ask Trump to send help for our immigration system, and our oil and gas industries.
September 22, 2026
Burnham should advise Pres. Trump against letting his military use AI to trigger hostile operations, otherwise he risks starting WWIII. As nearly happened in April thanks to an intelligence report that put the US navy on course to forcibly intercept a Chinese ship, according to a CNN report. Burnham should say that if Americans really want to have a war with China, we want no part of it.
September 22, 2026
Burnham could step aside and allow Donald Trump become the UK PM. Afterall Trump has rights to UK citizenship from birth, he doesn’t need to force his way in a rubber boat. Also as a UK business man Trump also pays tax and contributes to the UK. He just unusally doesn’t make a big deal about it.