Q: [From Jack Elsom from the Sun] To Trump, have you any advice for Starmer on immigration?
Trump says he has got illegal immigration into the US down to zero.
This was one of the issues that made him run for president.
He says he told Starmer to stop it. They could use the military, he suggests. But it does not matter how – you have to stop it.
Starmer says this is a problem across Europe. There have been 35,000 returns now – the highest number for years.
Today a flight went off at 6.15am taking the first person back to France under the new returns deal.
He says this is “proof of concept”, showing this can work.
Raphael Boyd is a Guardian reporter.
Peter Mandelson has lost another job. The former ambassador to the US has now been stripped of his title as the high steward of Kingston upon Hull, as anger over his past ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein continue to grow.
Hull City councillors passed an emergency motion today to strip Mandelson of the honour – a ceremonial title bestowed by Hull council. Mandelson was made high steward in 2013, with the position having been vacant for almost four decades prior. The title had previously been held by his grandfather, Herbert Morrison, who was a prominent Labour during the war and in the subsequent Attlee government.
Following the Epstein revelations, which led to Mandelson being sacked as ambassador last week, Manchester Metropolitan University, of which he was the chancellor between 2016 and 2024, rescinding his honorary doctorate and commemorative medal following public pressure.
There is a lot of talk these days about the need for people in politics to be able to “disagree agreeably”, to use a phrase popularised by Alastair Campbell, describing the approach he adopts with Rory Stewart in their Rest is Politics podcast. Since Campbell and Stewart are centrists, they don’t have a lot to disagree on anyway, but it’s a noble idea, and a good phrase. And now it turns out that Donald Trump seems to have adopted it too.
When Theresa May was PM, she had an excruciating press conference with Trump at Chequers when he half-heartedly played down an interview he had given to the Sun implying she he did not rate her much. The lack of repect was obvious. There was none of that today. The president did not try undermine Keir Starmer in any way, and although he acknowledged that they have a different view on Israel and Gaza, it was cordial and rational. Other potential disagreements did not arise, or were glossed over. Trump, unusually, was diplomatic.
This meant the news quotient was on the low side. On Russia, Trump dropped hints about a new initiative against Russia, but it was hard to tell how serious it was. His analysis of the conflict backed up what his friend Christopher Ruddy was telling the Today programme this morning. (See 10.11am.) There were no big announcements here.
The declaration that Trump wants to buy or lease Bagram airbase from the Taliban was certainly novel. (See 4.28pm.) But is that much more than fantasy? Perhaps he’s just floating this potential territorial acquisition because he has finally accepted that his plans to annex Canada and Greenland aren’t going anywhere.
Trump may have been at his most diplomatic, but that did not mean he had given up on shameless half-truths. His “Peter who?” response to the question about Mandelson will have caused much amusement at Westminster, and in the US his suggestion that Jimmy Kimmel was just fired for his ratings will be dismissed as a lie.
Starmer’s answers on most topics were predictable, but his declaration that the Church of England has been “my church … all my life” was not something I think he has said publicly before. He is an athiest, and his election last year even promoted a debate in religious circles about whether having an athiest PM was a problem. Half a day with a Maga president, and is Starmer finding his faith? Probably not. But it was interesting anwyay. I will post the full words shortly.
(If non-British readers find this confusing, it is worth pointing out that atheism and a loose allegiance to the Church of England are not at all incompatible.)
During the press conference Donald Trump said that the US is going to try to regain control of the Bagram air base in Afghanistan.
In response to a question about Ukraine, he said the US departure from Afghanistan under Joe Biden was a “total disaster”. He went on:
[We were] going to leave Afghanistan, but we were going to leave it with strength and dignity, and we were going to keep Bagram, the big air base, one of the biggest air bases in the world. We gave it to them [the Taliban] for nothing.
We’re trying to get it back, by the way. That could be a little breaking news. We’re trying to get it back, because they need things from us. We want that base back.
One of the reasons we want the base is, as you know, it’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons.
Q: Was it a mistake to invite Putin to Alaska? What action will you be taking against him now?
Starmer said there were some European countries that were “too reliant on energy from Russia”.
There was no silver bullet, he said.
He said it was important to put Ukraine in the strongest position now.
Trump said if the price of oil comes down, Putin “is going to have no choice, he’s going to drop out of that war”.
But European countries are buying oil from Russia, he said.
He said he had sanctioned India to get them to stop buying oil from Russia.
He went on:
I’m willing to do other things, but not when the people that I’m fighting for are buying oil from Russia. If the oil price comes down, very simply, Russia will settle.
And that was the last question.
Q: [From Sky’s Beth Rigby] What was your reaction to Peter Mandelson being fired for his links with Jeffrey Epstein? Did you have some sympathy for him?
Trump says he does not know about that. He refers it to Starmer.
(At this point, on the BBC feed, the audio suddenly starts sounding crackly.)
Starmer says new information came to light, and Mandelson was removed. He swiftly moves on.
UPDATE: Here is Trump’s reply in full. He claimed not to know Mandelson – even though they had met a few times. Trump said:
I don’t know him, actually. I had heard that. I think maybe the prime minister would be better speaking of that. That was a choice that he made. I don’t know. [To Starmer] What is our answer to that?
Q: [From ITV’s Robert Peston] To Trump – You alone have the power to stop Israel’s attack on Gaza. When will you?
Trump asks Peston if he understands what happened on 7 October.
Peston says he is a Jew, and he does.
Trump says the hostages have to be released first.
Q: Why do you back the firing of Jimmy Kimmel if you support free speech?
Trump says Kimmel was fired for “bad ratings”.
Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person. He had very bad ratings, and they should have fired him a long time ago. So, you know, you can call that free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent.
Q: If you feel so strongly about recognising Palestine, why don’t you do it now, intead of waiting until Trump last left the country. And won’t this reward Hamas?
Starmer says he knows where he stands on Hamas. They are a terrorist group. He says the 7 October attack was the worst attack (on Jews) since the war.
And he says the Palestinian recognition decision is not related to the state visit.
Q: Is there any update on the autopen scandal?
(This is the Maga conspiracy theory that Joe Biden was not really taking decisions, and that his supposedly leftwing officials were running the country, using the White House autopen machine to get his signature on laws and orders.)
Trump gives a rambling answer arguing that Biden did not know what was happening. He says it is a shame that using the autopen was not illegal.
Q: Will you label antifa terrorists, as Trump has done?
Starmer says the UK will take decisions for itself. He will not comment on the president’s decisions.
Starmer invites Trump to call questions now. He calls Beverley Turner from GB News. She asks about free speech, and whether the UK is a Christian country.
Starmer says he was christened. He says the church has been part of his life, and is an informal part of this country’s constitution.
And he says he supports free speech, but thinks there must be limits.
Q: [From the Economist’s Matthew Holehouse] Have negotiations with Russia run out, and what are your next steps?
Trump says again Putin has let him down.
Russian soldiers are being killed at a faster rate than Ukrainians, he says.
He claims the Ukraine war would not have happened if he had been president.
He repeats the claim about stopping seven war.
Coming back to Ukraine, he says “I hope we’re going to have some good news for you coming up”.
Starmer says Trump needs to put pressure on Putin.
He says Putin is either emboldened, or reckless.
That is why allies need to ramp up action against him, he says.
European action, with a US guarantee, is an example of Europe stepping up to the plate.
Trump says at one point it was “heading to a third world war”. Now that is not the case.
Q: Why do you think you are right and Trump is wrong on energy?
Starmer says he has taken a mixed approach to energy – using renewables, but also continuing with oil and gas.
Starmer wants to move on, but Trump jumps in. He says his “drill, baby, drill” policy is right. And he attacks wind energy.
Q: [From Jack Elsom from the Sun] To Trump, have you any advice for Starmer on immigration?
Trump says he has got illegal immigration into the US down to zero.
This was one of the issues that made him run for president.
He says he told Starmer to stop it. They could use the military, he suggests. But it does not matter how – you have to stop it.
Starmer says this is a problem across Europe. There have been 35,000 returns now – the highest number for years.
Today a flight went off at 6.15am taking the first person back to France under the new returns deal.
He says this is “proof of concept”, showing this can work.