LONDON — Britain’s incoming ambassador to the United States should “avoid being too needy” or driven by short-term tactical considerations if he wants to win respect from Donald Trump, according to a former senior foreign policy advisor to three U.K. prime ministers.
Tom Fletcher, now the United Nations humanitarian aid chief, is a veteran of the diplomatic circuit who previously advised Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron on the transatlantic relationship.
He told POLITICO’s Power Play podcast that dealings between the U.K and the U.S. would be “more transactional” under Trump — but that the challenges would play to Peter Mandelson’s strengths as Britain’s incoming top representative in the U.S.
“My advice to the U.K. is: Don’t get too hung up on the cosmetic stuff,” Fletcher said. “That’s not easy when you’re in the thick of it — you know, the length of the press conference, the content of the tweet, the day-to-day knock- about stuff.”
But he noted that Mandelson, a figure central to Labour’s last stint in power who will succeed Karen Pierce as ambassador shortly after Trump’s inauguration, is “a supreme political operator [who] has an extraordinary emotional intelligence and an ability to get on with people — and to get things out of people.”
‘Trip in a gold carriage’
Speaking in a personal capacity rather than in his U.N. role, Fletcher, who also counselled Britain’s leaders on how to manage three previous presidential transitions before moving to the U.N. as coordinator for humanitarian affairs, predicted there would be “moments of jeopardy” as the U.K. and the U.S reset their interaction after the Biden years.
“I’d avoid being too needy. I’d avoid being too tactical,” he told the podcast. “There’s a danger that we get too caught up in the immediate things that Donald Trump might want, like a trip in a gold carriage along the [London] Mall and all that sort of thing.”
That said, Britain’s ability to offer the glitzy trappings might also allow it to bank favors with the new president, Fletcher said, oiling “the wheels of diplomacy” with lavish state visits and banquets. “If you have a leader who likes those things more, why not turn them up?”
Labour MPs and London’s diplomatic service are divided, however, on how far Britain should go to accommodate the Trump worldview — on matters ranging from the war in Ukraine, to how to handle tensions over the future role and funding of NATO.
Asked if he thought Britain’s center-left Labour government would need to bend toward Trump to gain access — and possible favors on trade — Fletcher said: “I don’t think that you should bend the knee to anyone. Every relationship has its ups and downs, and there will be things that Donald Trump specifically wants from the U.K. too.”
Speaking on a tour of Ukraine, where he has been visiting battlefield areas to assess the best ways for the U.N. to deliver humanitarian relief in conflict zones amid testing winter conditions, Fletcher said of the conflict: “It’s tough and it’s grim. And when you are here in winter, you can feel how bleak it is out toward those front lines. It must be a horrific place to fight, but it’s also a horrific place at the moment to just try to survive.”
The under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator conceded that the global body must “find ways to coordinate better, [so] that we become more efficient in delivering,” as shrinking budgets and proliferating conflicts have strained the U.N.’s ability to deliver help in conflict zones. He acknowledged that a push to raise $47 billion to hit the U.N.’s global objectives was optimistic — not least given Trump’s hostility to the organization and compassion fatigue across democracies.
“I have got to be realistic,” Fletcher said. “We’re not going get close to that in the current funding environment, however good a job we do and however strong a case we make, because a lot of our traditional supporters are turning away. Our humanitarian values are underfunded, overstretched, and literally under attack.”
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