As President Donald Trump settles into his second term and world leaders ponder what the next four years have in store, some British officials who have dealt with him in the past are sharing words of advice: Expect chaos, but also laughs.
Several people who worked for the British prime minister’s office during Trump’s first term spoke with Politico EU this week, recalling how small crowds of civil servants and advisers would gather to listen in on phone calls with Trump.
“The calls were extraordinary … brilliant,” one person told the outlet. “Everyone was in there with tears [of] laughter because they were hilarious.”
Another said that whatever agenda had been planned “would quite quickly fall by the wayside,” while a third said the calls “were never what you wanted them to be about, broadly.”
“If you were calling about trade or Israel or something, it would always go off beam,” the third former Downing Street official told Politico EU.
Americans are already well-versed in Trump’s meandering style of speech, surprising gaffes and penchant for jumping between topics at whim. Trump even came up with a nickname for the phenomenon during his last campaign, dubbing it “the weave,” as he claims he always ends up hitting his intended points in the end.
Still, another person told Politico EU not to underestimate Trump.
“Yes, he will say some mad or unpredictable things, but there’s almost always an underlying argument or basis for a negotiation,” the person told the outlet, adding that if the conversation goes south, Trump is always happy to discuss his U.K. golf courses.
The U.K. has seen a revolving door of prime ministers over the last decade, including two when Trump was in office the first time, Teresa May and Boris Johnson, both members of the Conservative Party.
Johnson was spotted attending Trump’s second inauguration.
The current PM, Labour’s Keir Starmer, has yet to meet with Trump in person, although the two men have spoken over the phone twice since his November election. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy suggested that Starmer would visit Washington “within the next few weeks” for a meeting.
The U.K.’s business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, has argued that his country should be excluded from the sweeping tariffs Trump has pledged to impose on foreign imports to the U.S.