Britain is under attack from Donald Trump
I know from experience that leading the Liberal Democrats is a frustrating job; marginalised in the media and patronised by the two traditional parties. But periodically we hit on a message which resonates in the country, as with Charles Kennedy’s opposition to the Iraq war. Ed Davey may have found another: ‘Stand up to Trump’.
These are early days in the second Trump administration, but a political, economic and cultural revolution is under way. The MAGA movement is also much bigger than its capricious, unpredictable leader. Trump’s apostles like JD Vance and Hegseth are ideologically extreme but also articulate, smart and superficially plausible.
They have already shown their contempt for international law and a rules-based order, swallowing whole and parroting Russian talking points on our ally Volodymyr Zelensky. But it is not just Ukraine they regard with contempt. It is Britain too.
Our secular and liberal values; our diverse society; our democratically elected government. All are antithetical to the Trump clan. We need to understand that the sentimental nonsense about the special relationship is over. We are under attack.
I have some sympathy for our government. Starmer is being understandably cautious recognising that there is much uncertainty and danger. The resulting passivity has however created a leadership vacuum. The Tories and Reform vie to be mini-Trumps. They are also skirting around the edge of treacherous collusion with people who openly declare their wish to overthrow our legitimate government. Nor will leadership come from the lazy anti-Americanism of the far left which sees Trump as merely a cruder spokesman for American imperialism than Clinton or Obama.
I have some sympathy for our government. Starmer is being understandably cautious recognising that there is much uncertainty and danger. The resulting passivity has however created a leadership vacuum. The Tories and Reform vie to be mini-Trumps. They are also skirting around the edge of treacherous collusion with people who openly declare their wish to overthrow our legitimate government. Nor will leadership come from the lazy anti-Americanism of the far left which sees Trump as merely a cruder spokesman for American imperialism than Clinton or Obama.
Step forward the leader of the Liberal Democrats to provide a focal point for resistance. The fact that Ed Davey has attracted the abuse of Trump’s outrider, Elon Musk, is to his credit. Being described as a ‘snivelling cretin’ tells us less about him than about the deranged people who insult him: the MAGA folk who think that Tommy Robinson is the authentic voice of the British working class; that London is a Muslim city; and that ‘free speech’ has been outlawed in the UK.
The irony of using ‘freedom’ as a dividing line with Britain appears to be completely lost on people whose idea of personal freedom is ownership of offensive automatic weapons, facilitating mass killings. As for the alleged decadence and decay of Europe it pays to point out that, in Trump’s macho USA, male life expectancy is five years or so less than ours and less than in China or Ecuador.
But apart from firing verbal projectiles, what does ‘standing up to Trump’ look like? Tariffs? We will be dragged down like everyone else by a global trade war. Outside the EU, Britain does not have the clout to retaliate, and, in any event, the Americans will point out that Britain unilaterally raised tariffs against itself when it left the EU customs union.
More reassuringly, the USA is no longer quite the power in world trade it once was, or Trump thinks it is. The EU is the dominant power in trade in goods and services combined, China in goods. Though relatively declining, the US is still the world’s largest importer with around 15% of world imports, narrowly ahead of the EU and China.
The US can damage its trade partners, as it clearly intends to do, but there is nothing to stop them trading more with each other. America, of course, runs big trade deficits. It has the privilege of being able to consume disproportionately by issuing dollar IOUs (which may soon lose their appeal as a store of value). Trump’s particular genius has been an ability to translate this self-indulgence into victimhood.
Another tricky issue for the UK concerns digital business and US tech giants. The Tories rightly introduced a modest 2% digital tax on turnover. The tax has however enraged the Tech Bros who have enlisted Trump to demand its removal. This issue should be a red line for Mr Starmer. The public would be outraged by any capitulation to protect the billionaire lifestyles of Besos and Zuckerberg at the expense British taxpayers.
Likewise, we should – alongside Europe – be tough about the place of regulation in the digital world. The British Online Safety Act is a specific target for Trump, and even bigger one is the tough anti-monopoly policy of the European Commission. The Labour government is showing signs – as in the safety regulation of AI – of falling in behind the Trump administration and being seduced by the lovely word ‘innovation’. I recall it was also the buzz word in the investment banks before the financial crash. We have been warned.
These rather technical, but critically important, economic issues are overshadowed by the emerging schism in trans-Atlantic security. It has become self-evident that Europe will have to organise its own defence. Britain owes a debt to previous Labour leaders who won internal battles to keep an independent British nuclear deterrent. Meanwhile, the question will soon arise as to why, for example, we are paying for British aircraft carriers to wander around the China Sea in support of America, or the AUKUS Treaty, when America is no longer committed to the defence of Europe.
Perhaps the biggest challenge to Britain is Trump’s war on the whole system of multilateral cooperation and rules based on mutual self-interest. The US is set to abandon the Bretton Woods financial institutions, the WTO, the COP and the whole United Nations system. But when narcissists throw a hissy fit the best policy is to ignore them. There are institutions like the Asia-Pacific trade group, CPTPP, or the Asia Infrastructure Bank which function well despite a US boycott. Britain, sensibly, is a member of both.
The USA is no longer the global hegemon. It is in relative decline, which is, paradoxically, is the reason for MAGA. The world will not miss stars and stripes at international conferences.
By contrast, Britain potentially has a big role in saving and adapting regional and global institutions in coalitions of the willing. That is a better prospect than servility and humiliation at Trump’s heel.
Ed Davey is on to something.
Sir Vince Cable is a former Secretary of State for Business, and led the Liberal Democrats from 2017-19.
