King Charles visit in question as Trump berates UK over Iran war position | CNN

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer – buttoned-up, lawyerly, reserved – is not a man prone to effusiveness. But when he sat next to US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office last February, he began to speak like his host. “This is really special,” said Starmer, as he brandished a letter from King Charles III inviting Trump for a second state visit to Britain. “This has never happened before. This is unprecedented… This is truly historic – an unprecedented second state visit.” Starmer’s uncharacteristic gushing showed how his government planned to handle the US president in his second term: play to his penchant for flattery and royalty, and hope to reap rewards – from a lower tariff rate than that slapped on the European Union, to continued US support for Ukraine. For some time, that strategy has proven rather effective. But now it appears to have faltered. Although Trump has berated all America’s allies for their reluctance to assist the United States militarily in its war with Iran, he has singled out Starmer with vitriol. “This is not Winston Churchill we’re dealing with,” Trump said on March 3. On Monday, he suggested Britain was no longer “the R