The new president may be erratic and impulsive yet No 10 officials are determined the two leaders will develop a strong relationship despite their differing personalities.
“The PM will be asking Peter: ‘How on earth do I handle this crazy guy?’,” says a former colleague.
“As an ambassador in the court of Donald Trump you need someone who can tickle him under his chin. Peter will be the absolute fixer and bridge builder.”
Unlike the imminent turnover of leaders in continental Europe (Mandelson’s long friendship with Emmanuel Macron is no longer so helpful), Starmer and Trump are likely to be in office and working together for the next four years.
One official says part of the UK’s pitch is about emphasising that both men are winners: “Our message to him is we won big in July. You won big in November. Let’s do business together.”
Mandelson has regularly provided advice to Keir Starmer in recent years and acted as an unofficial mentor to the PM’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and director of communications Matthew Doyle.
These relationships suggest Downing Street and the US embassy will have an unusually close and constant level of contact.
In an administration where billionaire businessmen have unprecedented influence, Peter Mandelson’s contacts from his time as EU trade commissioner, UK business secretary, and via his international lobbying firm Global Counsel is already being deployed. “He’s essentially been a businessman for the last 15 years,” says a source.
In conversations with Trump, Mandelson could drop the names of numerous mutual friends: he knows Peter Thiel, the right-wing billionaire backer of vice president JD Vance, and Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape, who is on the board of Meta.
Mandelson has met Elon Musk, holidayed with Trump’s new Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and built a relationship with Mark Burnett, the TV producer behind The Apprentice who is now Trump’s special envoy to the UK.
Yet Mandelson’s expertise in charming these elites (former President George W. Bush nicknamed him ‘Silvertongue’), and his penchant for luxury have also led to problems throughout his career.
“He has weaknesses,” says one longtime friend. “He likes the high life. A lifestyle he can’t afford.”
Peter Mandelson’s friendship with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska during his time at the EU provoked questions about conflicts of interest – Mandelson had stayed on Deripaska’s yacht. The European Commission cleared him of wrongdoing.
A name Mandelson will likely not drop in Trump’s company is that of their late former friend Jeffrey Epstein.
Both knew the billionaire paedophile who died by suicide in 2019. Mandelson maintained a relationship with him even after Epstein signed a plea deal in 2008 and served an 18-month jail term for soliciting sex from girls as young as 14.
Epstein is said to have referred to Mandelson as “Petie”. Photographs released in court documents show Mandelson trying on a belt alongside Epstein in a clothing shop, and the pair blowing out candles on a birthday cake.
Lord Mandelson has said he “deeply regrets” both ever meeting Epstein and the hurt caused to his many victims, and has also said that he never had any kind of professional or business relationship with him. But in an interview with the Financial Times, external this week, the diplomat also added: “I’m not going to go into this”, and swore explosively at the interviewer.
Source:
www.bbc.com
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