Key takeaways from Trump's press Q&As in Scotland
The US president re-entered office promising to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict within 24 hours, and to more generally bring peace elsewhere. For all his talk about halting six wars – it was not clear what at least two of these were – you could sense Trump's frustration at the lack of progress with both Ukraine and Gaza.
He showed signs of frustration with Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu, leaders he generally respects. As well as hinting at a swift imposition of sanctions in Russia, Trump said he was 'not so interested in talking any more' with the Russian leader.
With Netanyahu, the tone was less openly aggrieved, but the US president made it clear that a different approach was needed given the ongoing starvation of many in Gaza. 'I want to make sure they get the food, every ounce of food,' he said.
Even though Trump and Starmer brandished a newly signed trade deal the last time they met, at the G7 summit in Canada in June, there are numerous issues on tariffs and market access still to be decided, and Trump did not seem in the mood for giving way.
Asked about UK access to the US pharmaceuticals market, the president talked about wanting to 'bring a lot of the pharmaceuticals back to America, where they should be'.Asked about exempting Scottish whisky from tariffs he dodged the question.
When the issue was raised of reducing tariffs on UK aluminium and steel entering the US, Trump merely said this should happen 'pretty soon', one of those timescales used by politicians when they either don't know or don't wish to say.
Whereas Starmer at times appears to feel more at ease with international diplomacy than everyday politics, Trump is a creature of his domestic base, and felt quite hazy when questioned on UK issues.
When asked about 'small boats', one of the most salient issues to British voters at the moment, Trump replied: 'I know nothing about the boats,' with Starmer having to explain.
Similarly, Trump argued confidently that his host was a small-state 'tax cutter'. Asked about a new Scottish independence referendum, Trump's main reference point was the idea that he predicted its result – when in fact this was about the EU referendum, and it wasn't a prediction as he was speaking after the result.
Continuing the theme of all their recent encounters, Trump could hardly have been warmer about the prime minister, calling him a friend, albeit one who was 'slightly liberal'.
On the subject of Victoria Starmer, to whom he has taken an apparent shine, Trump said she was 'a respected person all over the United States', which might be news to the PM, not to mention to his wife.
Joe Biden's apparent mental fragility was an understandable area of scrutiny during his final period in office, but it is also worth pointing out that Trump is not just often long-winded and meandering, but sometimes veers into impossible-to-follow near-nonsense.
Consider this answer to a question on rate cuts, which moved from the refurbishment of the US Treasury to building work on the Trump-owned Turnberry golf course in Scotland: 'Now, this is a brand new building, but if you look outside, it's equally opulent and beautiful. And we didn't do that by spending, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars in surrounding a railing underneath the area that you're painting …
'Brand new, beautiful plywood, very expensive, wrapped around a figurine or a railing to preserve it. But you don't have to do that. You can just wrap a cloth. They call it a blanket. And you don't even have to do that if you're careful when you're doing the ceiling. But I don't know what they did. They take down the ceiling and put up a new ceiling, and the new ceiling had no opulence, or they fixed the ceiling, but I would say that all I need is a good plaster and a can of paint.'
Eventually, a reporter interrupted to ask again about rate cuts.
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