Trump’s state visit gets down to business as he heads to meet Starmer

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday left Windsor Castle — where he and his wife Melania received the royal treatment — to head to Chequers, the official country residence of Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The two leaders are engaging in trade and geopolitical talks, as well as meeting with delegations from the U.K. and U.S.

Trump was greeted by Starmer and his wife Victoria, along with another ceremonial guard of honor and bagpipers, when he arrived at Chequers — a 16th-century manor house near London that prime ministers use as a rural retreat and more informal venue for international diplomacy.

Finalizing commitments laid out in the “economic prosperity deal” or U.S.-U.K. trade deal of May are expected to take center stage, as well as more thorny matters regarding 25% tariffs on British steel and aluminum that the U.K. wants reduced to zero. The ongoing wars in Ukraine and Middle East are also likely to feature on the agenda.

Speaking to reporters as he boarded Air Force One to travel to Britain on Tuesday, Trump said he was “into helping” the U.K. finesse the countries’ trade deal.

“They want to see if they can refine the trade deal a little bit,” he said “We’ve made a deal, and it’s a great deal, and I’m into helping them,” he said at the time. “They’d like to see if they could get a little bit better deal. So, we’ll talk to them.”

On Thursday, the U.S. president and U.K. PM will join British Finance Minister Rachel Reeves for a business reception before giving a joint press conference later in the day.

The state visit has already yielded fruit for the U.K., with £150 billion ($204 billion) worth of inward investment announced in the run-up to and during the trip. The British government hailed the investments on Wednesday, stating that these deals would “boost jobs, drive growth and deliver opportunity for working people up and down the country.”

What could be key to day three of the state visit is that Starmer and Trump appear to truly get on. Just why that’s the case — when the two men have such different political backgrounds and perspectives — continues to defy logic.

“The Donald Trump-Keir Starmer friendship is an unlikely pair. Starmer is a center-left human rights lawyer, Donald Trump, being the way that we know he is, what defines their relationship is a bit mysterious,” Tina Fordham, founder at Fordham Global Foresight, told CNBC on Thursday.

“I’m going to put it in terms of ‘soft power’ and all of Trump’s positive associations [with the U.K.]. Trump doesn’t have very many friends on the…