Trump's State Visit 2.0

This week, two seemingly separate events tell a single, troubling story about Britain's place in the modern world. First, a massive, 100,000-strong far-right rally, supported by American funding, took to the streets of London. Now, Keir Starmer's government is preparing to roll out the red carpet for an unprecedented second state visit for Donald Trump.

These are not separate events. They are two acts in the same play.

In this episode, Nick Shepley argues that Britain is preparing to advertise its own weakness and vassalage on the world stage. We explore the deep connections between the rise of the externally-funded far-right and the impending arrival of a US President who has built his career on identifying and exploiting the weakest mark.

In this analysis, we discuss:

• The Unprecedented Visit: Why is a British government offering an honour to Donald Trump that no American President in history has ever received before?
• Trump's Worldview: Understanding Trump's motives not through the lens of traditional diplomacy, but through the brutal logic of a mob-associated property developer looking for the easiest shakedown.
• The Post-Brexit Reality: How Britain, adrift from its traditional European partners, has become the perfect soft target for American economic and political domination.
• The Historical Parallel: We look at how great powers in decline often find themselves in these positions of weakness, forced to perform loyalty to a new global hegemon. This isn't a "Special Relationship"; it's a client relationship.
• A Grim Prediction: Why this visit is set up to be a public humiliation, and why the British government may have no choice but to accept it.

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