Theater in London: Trump, King Charles and the "Special Relationship"
by Harley Schlanger
After Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 presidential campaign, leading figures in the City of London openly voiced fears that his presidency might rupture the so-called "Special Relationship" between the United States and the United Kingdom. The relationship was crafted by Winston Churchill after World War II, to maintain Britain's status as a world power, despite its economic and military decline, by creating a strategic partnership between the two countries, committing U.S. military power to defend the global interests of a British-directed empire.
It was to prevent this rupture that officials in the British intelligence and diplomatic establishment concocted the fabricated charges which became known as "Russiagate", alleging that Russian President Putin had interfered on Trump's behalf in the 2016 election to help him win, and possessed compromising material -- detailed in the "Steele dossier" produced by "former" MI6 operative Christopher Steele -- which could be used to blackmail Trump if he were elected. The Russiagate story was launched by Britain's GCHQ and MI6, to prevent him from fulfilling his campaign promise that he would develop a friendly relationship between Russia and the U.S., which would break the geopolitical containment of Russia demanded by the City of London and western neocons.
A report released in November 2018 by the House of Lords, "U.K. Foreign Policy in a Shifting World Order", reflected the desperate panic of the City of London financial and corporate cartels over the possibility of a Trump re-election in 2020. If that occurred, Britain would be reduced to being a third-rate power, a minor player in an American-dominated Unipolar Order.
Bonus for the Military-Industrial-Complex
When Trump began his state visit to London last week, one knowledgeable European source said that he expected the British will use the trip as an opportunity to "recapture the U.S. Presidency" for the Special Relationship. He was counting on a "charm offensive" by King Charles, amidst the splendor of Windsor Castle, to play to Trump's ego, to convince him of his world historic significance as the guardian of the relationship. Another source disagreed, saying that for the intelligence, military, financial and diplomatic communities of both countries, the special relationship never ended.
The results of his trip seem to confirm both assessments, as paeans to each other at the state dinner, combined with agreements signed between U.S. tech firms and the U.K. government and private firms adding to more than $42 billion, appear to have strengthened the alliance. The "Tech Prosperity Pact", as this was called, was part of an overall investment package of 250 billion Pounds of public-private funding.
"This is a great day for the special relationship,” said Prime Minister Starmer, who has thus far presided over a shrinking economy. This is a "celebration of what has gone before," he gushed, "but more than that, a moment to deliver investments, jobs and deals which will improve people’s lives now and light up the special relationship for years to come.”
Trump was also enthusiastic. “The ties between our countries are priceless....We’ve done some things that financially are great for both countries ... I think it’s an unbreakable bond we have, regardless of what we’re doing today. I think it’s unbreakable.”
Travelling with Trump were CEOs from Silicon Valley tech firms which have moved into defense-related business. These included Microsoft, NVIDIA, Alphabet/Google, Open AI and Salesforce. Also among the crowd was David Sacks, the White House AI and Crypto czar.
A separate deal was signed by Britain's Defence Minister John Healey and Palantir CEO Alex Karp. The $1.5 billion total will go toward joint efforts "to transform lethality on the battlefield, supporting the development of data and AI-powered capabilities across data analysis, intelligence, decision support and targeting systems," according to a joint press release.
A third participant involved in military-related U.S.-U.K. cybersecurity and spyware deals is Israel, whose tech firms share state-of-the-art surveillance technologies with the Anglosphere.
Praise for Special Relationship
Backing up the military-tech collaboration were toasts from King Charles III and Trump reaffirming the Special Relationship. In his toast before the state dinner on the 17th, the King hailed the "historic bond" which he asserted unites the two countries. The King would seem to be an odd partner for Trump, given his role as a defender of malthusian population reduction through deindustrialization, which Trump has repeatedly attacked, most recently in his speech before the U.N. General Assembly.
This was topped by the toast made by Trump, who described the invitation as "truly one of the highest honors of my life," telling the King that he has "such respect for you and such respect for your country." Citing founding members of the British Empire Locke and Hobbes as part of a pantheon of heroes, he described the "legal, intellectual, cultural and political traditions of this kingdom" as being "among the highest achievements of mankind: There has really never been anything like it. The British Empire laid the foundations of law, liberty, free speech and individual rights virtually everywhere the Union Jack has ever flown, including a place called America…." Somewhere in this hyperbolic nonsense, his speech writer seems to have forgotten that the American Revolution was a successful revolt against this tradition, and the last bonds of a 500-year old European colonial order are being cut by leaders of the Global South!
He concluded his toast by praising the racist imperialist Churchill, who coined the term "special relationship", concluding that the two countries were "joined by history and fate, by love and language, and by transcendent ties of culture, tradition, ancestry and destiny.”
The Fraud of "Transcendent Ties"
This argument for the Special Relationship, that it is based on "transcendent ties", is treated by most American elected officials as though it is a self-evident truth. The general acceptance of this reveals the degree to which the typical American today has little knowledge of the actual history of the United States and its founding principles, which are diametrically opposed to those of the British monarchy. This subject was addressed conclusively by the late American statesman Lyndon LaRouche. In a 100-page memo he drafted in December 1977, "How to Evaluate a British Intelligence Network", LaRouche exposed the flawed axioms of most Americans -- including members of the intelligence community and military -- which make them susceptible to manipulation by the monarchy and the City of London oligarchy. The imperial geopolitical doctrine they espouse was responsible for two world wars and a prolonged Cold War in the last century, and a series of endless smaller wars since the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of December 1991, which has humanity sitting on a powder keg today (see Footnote ***).
LaRouche opens his memo by stating that good intelligence work requires a "developed sense of personal identity as your principal yardstick of judgement...to recognize the significance of behavior which is controlled by a different sense of personal identity than your own." Britain was the chief adversary of the Americans leading up to the American Revolution, then remained so from 1776 through 1863. The "American identity" was shaped by this adversarial relationship, centered around a fundamental difference between America's "Hamiltonian" economic approach, with its emphasis on the role of individual creativity and freedom, backed by a national credit policy, and funded by a national bank, as a source of wealth; versus the British System's Hobbesian view of the population, engaged in a bestial struggle of "each against all", combined with the "free market" doctrine of Locke, Adam Smith and Malthus upon which the British Empire was built, with wealth appropriated through collection of "ground rent" from the native population, and predatory looting of its far-flung colonies.
In the present century [20th century], he continues, the once-unbridgable distinctions between an American and a British identity, "have been significantly blurred, if not obliterated", due to a "generally accelerating increase of direct British influence within the United States' own policy, military and intelligence establishments." This is reflected in the ongoing commitment to war with Russia, using Ukraine as a weapon, with NATO/EU leaders, under the leadership of Starmer and Macron vowing to continue, even if Trump disengages.
During Trump's visit, Starmer continued to lobby for full backing of Ukraine, in the proxy war against Russia, which was initiated under the hapless British puppet, Joe Biden.
War or Peace?
As the British war hawks were celebrating this rhetorical flourish defending the special relationship, hopeful that it signaled the return to business-as-usual between the two countries, a Trump message two days later on Truth Social raised new doubts in Britain and in Europe. After a meeting with Zelensky at the United Nations, Trump wrote that he now believes Ukraine could win back territory from Russia, with support from the EU and NATO, and blamed Putin for the continuation of the NATO proxy war. This was hailed by European leaders, as a change in his thinking, the result of the strong stands taken by the "coalition of the willing", who stated their willingness to bankrupt their countries to fund the lost cause in Ukraine.
But the cheers quickly gave way to doubts, as Trump's statement was read in some capitals as signaling his intent to disengage completely from Ukraine, setting up Starmer, Macron and their European allies to take the blame when Ukraine ultimately falls. A change in rhetoric means little, diplomats are saying, without a commitment from Trump to provide full support to Ukraine and place maximum pressure on Putin.
What this means about the future of the Special Relationship is uncertain. The friendly rhetoric surrounded by courtly pomp and circumstances made for good theater, but miserable statecraft. The starting point for peace is for President Trump to reject imperial geopolitics -- including the special relationship -- and work with his counterparts from nations of the Global Majority, who see the end of neo-colonialism as a necessary precondition for entry into a new era of peace and prosperity. For Trump to leave a legacy of peace, his support for the anti-colonial security and development initiatives coming from the BRICS and the Global South is the only alternative to the march toward nuclear war.
FOOTNOTE:
Lyndon LaRouche, "How to Evaluate a British Intelligence Network," December 11, 1977, presents a thorough refutation of the premises underlying the Special Relationship.
For more on the relationship between the Special Relationship and the Strategy of Tension, which pro-British intel networks tried to unleash with the assassination of U.S. conservative political activist Charlie Kirk just prior to Trump's visit to London, see The LaRouche Organization's Manhattan Project dialogue between this author and the U.K. Column's Mike Robinson