As Arsenal chased a Champions League comeback, the Prime Minister took a late-night call from Donald Trump, who was ready to close a long-delayed deal.
WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 06: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with the White House Task Force for the 2026 World Cup in the East Room of the White House on May 06, 2025 in Washington, DC. President Trump gathered the task force for the first time to hear from his Cabinet members in the ways their departments are preparing for the summer games. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer received an unscheduled phone call from President Donald Trump during the second half of Arsenal’s Champions League semi-final defeat to Paris Saint-Germain, as the US president sought final concessions on a UK-US trade deal.
The timing of the call, during a crucial match for Starmer’s boyhood club, was seen by some in Westminster as a deliberate power move by a president known for petty, bullyboy tactics.
Starmer was watching the second leg of the semi-final at the Parc des Princes when Trump phoned with 11th-hour demands on ethanol and pork exports. Following consultation with his officials and trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds, Starmer agreed to relax restrictions on ethanol imports but refused to concede on pork.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech in the garden of 10 Downing Street, ahead of a reception in for athletes from Team GB and Paralymp...
Photo by Justin Tallis – WPA Pool/Getty Images
Trump called back later in the evening to confirm the deal was in place and that he would announce it from the Oval Office the following day. Downing Street had not been informed of the exact timing and was caught off guard by the call.
“No, I didn’t know the exact day,” Starmer said the next day. “I wouldn’t have been having my phone call with President Trump halfway through the second half of the Arsenal-PSG game had I planned it better.”
The deal, which reduces US tariffs on UK car exports from 25 percent to 10 percent and removes levies on steel and aluminium, was nonetheless welcomed by Starmer. “I wanted to get a deal over the line and I’m not ashamed of that,” he said at a press event the next day at Jaguar Land Rover in Solihull. “I knew how important it was, particularly for JLR, that we got a deal over the line in a timely manner.”
WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 06: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks alongside President of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Gianni Infantino during a meeting with the White House Task Force for the 2026 World Cup in the East Room of the White House on May 06, 2025 in Washington, DC. President Trump gathered the task force for the first time to hear from his Cabinet members in the ways their departments are preparing for the summer games. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
In Washington, Trump held a press conference in the Oval Office alongside British ambassador and fellow friend of Jeffrey Epstein, Lord Mandelson, who thanked the president for his “typical 11th-hour intervention” and praised his negotiating instincts.
The agreement comes after months of difficult negotiations, with Starmer’s team working behind the scenes to contain the fallout from Trump’s April tariff hike, dubbed “Liberation Day” by the White House, and to prevent long-term damage to UK manufacturing.
It has been suggested that the UK’s roll-back on trans rights could be part of that plan with the Trump Administration demanding other countries fall in line with their anti-trans and anti-DEI policies.
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