Trump and new UK PM Andy Burnham met for the first time, trading warmth and pointed disagreement
On the sidelines of UN General Assembly week in New York, Donald Trump and Britain's new prime minister Andy Burnham held their first face-to-face meeting, with Trump calling Burnham a 'natural business person' and Burnham saying afterward he expected to find 'common ground' with the US president. The warmth masked real friction: Trump criticized the UK's deal to cede the Chagos Islands, while Burnham separately warned that new EU industrial rules Britain is being pulled toward would damage the UK economy, an early sign of the balancing act Britain's post-Starmer government faces between Washington and Brussels. The same UN sidelines produced a busy diplomatic circuit for Trump, who also met Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy to discuss a possible peace deal and energy ceasefire with Russia, suggesting an agreement could be close, and held a separate meeting with Venezuela's Delcy Rodriguez, his first contact with Caracas since Nicolás Maduro's capture.
