U.S. officials have received representations from Nigel Farage, the populist leader of Reform UK, and Tory figures, including Ross Kempsell, a peer and former aide to Boris Johnson. GB News reported Tuesday that a letter from skeptical British lawmakers was handed to Trump’s team during his state visit to the U.K. in September.
One U.K. defense analyst with U.S. links, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said: “Every single China hawk in D.C. was against the deal.”
Sophia Gaston, a research fellow at King’s College London, said U.S. institutions, which had been working on the negotiations with the U.K. were “supportive” of the deal and that Trump “was happy to wave it through in May as a gesture of trust and goodwill towards the special relationship.”
But she added: “There was always an element of fragility to the president’s support, however, because it’s a deal that’s all based around a respect for international law, and he prioritizes hard power in the national interest.”
A British official, not authorized to speak on the record, did not dispute this. “Pentagon and the State Department looked hard at this and concluded the deal was the best available outcome to secure vital U.S. interests,” they said.
Torrey Taussig, who worked on the deal as director for European affairs on the National Security Council in the Biden administration, stressed the safeguards in the agreement and said: “Both the Biden Administration and the Trump Administration supported this deal as it protects the base from international arbitration and objectively maintains U.S. national security interests in the region.”