‘Donald Trump views Keir Starmer as a weak link who has inflicted extreme damage to the special relationship,’ says Hadley Gamble

Marcus Donaldson
Tue, 07 Apr 2026 09:42:39 +0000

President Donald Trump views Keir Starmer as a “weak link” who has inflicted “extreme damage” on the special relationship between the UK and US, Hadley Gamble has claimed.

The veteran American journalist and former TV anchor was speaking to GB News as the Prime Minister prepares to deny US aircraft access to RAF bases for any strikes on Iranian bridges.

On Monday, President Trump repeated threats to "unleash hell" on Iran's critical infrastructure, including "every bridge" and "every power plant" - and warned the US had a plan to do so.

Downing Street has previously said it would only allow the use of British air bases for "defensive" capabilities, which have included strikes on Iran's missile silos or storage depots.

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The US is granted permission to strike from British bases on a case-by-case basis, and if bridges or power plants were raised as targets, they would be denied, according to The i.

Addressing Sir Keir’s apparent reticence throughout the conflict, Mr Trump told reporters: “We won’t want another Neville Chamberlain, do we agree? We don’t want Neville Chamberlain.”

He was refreshing a line of barbs against the Prime Minister, previously describing him as “no Churchill”.

It prompted Ms Gamble to opine that the US leader “clearly believes he's dealing with a weaker link”.

To that end, she told GB News the breakdown of the personal relationship between the two men would have ramifications for the alliance between Britain and the US.

“I think what you're going to see is a diminished relationship down the line.

“What you're going to see is the next time the United Kingdom needs something, whether it comes to tariff relief or a trade deal, this is not going to be a presence that's necessarily going to be playing ball.”

“This is causing extreme damage to the relationship.”

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“Certainly, in the minds of those sitting in Washington, in terms of the long-term playbook here, they're not going to be counting on the United Kingdom for much.”

While the veteran US journalist issued the dammning verdict on US-UK relations, she added that it was “not something he (Mr Trump) isn't hearing from other European leaders as well.”

She explained that it should come as no surprise to President Trump that his maximalist rhetoric on Iran would turn away allies like the UK and Europe.

“This is a man who's now described something directly from President Vladimir Putin's playbook, which is the destruction of civilian infrastructure in a country of 93 million people.

“It should come as no surprise that Keir Starmer is pushing back on this. Many European leaders are doing the same.

“We've already heard from the European Council president, Antonio Costa, over the last 24 hours, who essentially said this is a breach of international law. It's not surprising that a lawyer, Keir Starmer, would say the same.

“If you take a step back and think about that with regard to the special relationship, this is already a relationship that's sustained perhaps what we could call maximum damage in the last several weeks.

“It's got to be about, at this point, the prime minister's calculus of how damaging he's going to allow all of this to become,” Ms Gamble concluded.