'We've Found a Connection': Burnham Meets Trump Today, Armed With a Torpedo
The Prime Minister landed in New York for this afternoon’s first meeting with Mr Trump striking an unexpected note: “We’ve found a connection… I will go with where I feel it’s right, to meet him where he is at.” He brings deliverables: a UK-US “AI and Autonomy” defence partnership on protecting critical infrastructure, and the reveal that Britain’s uncrewed Excalibur submarine fired an American heavyweight torpedo — a first — in trials last week. His UN speech today makes the case on AI, Ukraine and the Middle East; Manchester, it emerged, will host the 2027 G20.
The choreography is textbook first-summit management: arrive with gifts the counterpart values — defence technology, an AI pact, a G20 invitation to his diary — and pre-frame warmth so the meeting must only avoid disaster to succeed; “we’ve found a connection” is expectation-setting as armour. The Excalibur reveal is the cleverest piece: a Plymouth-built drone firing an American torpedo embodies the interoperability argument no briefing paper can, and hands the president a strength story to repeat. The risks remain the unscripted minutes — Ulster, the Falklands, the settlement sanctions Washington deplored — and the “connection” language will be replayed against every past quote if the meeting sours. Watch the readout against the photographs this evening: this relationship will be set by tone, and tone doesn’t brief.