Soames – the son of Churchill’s youngest daughter, Mary – was a Conservative member of the House of Commons from 1983 before retiring in 2019.
He has had a colourful career, having been criticised for meeting with Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe, sacked from the Conservative benches for opposing Boris Johnson on Brexit and attracted multiple speeding fines. He was given a peerage in 2022.
US President Dwight Eisenhower and then-British Prime Minister Winston Churchill pose at the White House in 1954.
US President Dwight Eisenhower and then-British Prime Minister Winston Churchill pose at the White House in 1954.Credit: AP
Soames also condemned what he called the “extraordinary … perversion of the so-called Republican Party” under Trump’s leadership, noting that the party had “genuinely” allowed the belief to spread that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was not the aggressor in Ukraine.
“I love America, but it is not an America I know,” he said.
His criticism extended to Trump’s treatment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a recent Oval Office meeting, labelling the meeting a “repulsive defenestration” of Zelensky, suggesting the Ukrainian leader was humiliated “in public as part of a television show”.
In response, Ewing said Trump was an “anti-war president” who wanted to end the war in Ukraine.
The Winston Churchill bust has been returned to the Oval Office by US President Donald Trump.
The Winston Churchill bust has been returned to the Oval Office by US President Donald Trump.Credit: AP
She pointed to recent negotiations, noting that Ukraine had accepted a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in the ongoing conflict.
“We’re closer than we’ve ever been in the last three years,” Ewing said. “I think the president has actually got things going,” she said.
Soames also took aim at Trump’s repeated claims that the European Union was established to “screw America”. Trump has used this as a justification for demanding European nations increase their defence spending, while imposing tariffs on imports.
“Without the Americans, there wouldn’t have been a European Union,” Soames said.
“It is a perversion of history, and it’s very worrying to me that America’s policy is being driven by a deep and profound misunderstanding of the truth. The president hasn’t a clue.”
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