Chris Mason: Trump’s Scotland visit gives Starmer invaluable access

Two times around, the US president and the prime minister went, looking down on Donald Trump’s new golf course north of Aberdeen.

Finally, they came into land, days of diplomacy garnished with absurdity.

Downing Street is reconciled to the Trumpian ways of doing international affairs.

If doing a few airborne laps of the president’s new Scottish golf course are par for the course on board the presidential helicopter and en route to a private dinner with him, so be it.

This notionally “private” trip for Trump has been actually very public.

Of course it has: it is how the president rolls.

The president’s private interests are talked up in public office, even down to the quality of the plywood at Trump’s Turnberry golf course in Ayrshire, where he was before he flew on to Aberdeenshire.

And all this on his first trip to the UK since his re-election, but just weeks before he makes an unprecedented second state visit here in September.

The talks at Turnberry began with the spectacle of the president gushing about the prime minister’s wife, Victoria, as she stood alongside him, the entire conversation almost drowned out by a nearby bagpiper.

The leaders then spent more than half an hour talking one on one, before a classic of the Trumpian genre – a rolling, free-wheeling question-and-answer session with reporters, lasting more than an hour.

The topic list: turbines, Germany, free speech, Scottish independence, China, the King, interest rates, pharmaceuticals. Among other things.

For Sir Keir Starmer, both on and off camera, this all amounts to invaluable face time with Trump, even sharing a lift on Air Force One, burnishing a relationship as solid as it is improbable.

The jeopardy for him is clear too though: riding shotgun with a free-wheeling president at ease shooting the breeze with reporters seemingly forever.

Sir Keir interjected with care, to defend the mayor of London, heavily criticised by the president, to explain his immigration policy and his outlook on Gaza.

An earlier rolling encounter with reporters took No 10 by surprise: the prime minister’s wife, standing next to the president, perfecting her poker face as the questions – and answers – flowed and flowed.

As ever, the key question is what can this relationship deliver for the UK?

Downing Street regards the access moments like this offer as invaluable.

It is pleased that the president’s language on Gaza amounts to what they see as a toughening of his outlook and what they hope might be an alignment with the discussions the UK, France and Germany have been having in recent days.

Let’s see.

On Tuesday, the cabinet will gather at 14:00 for a rare summer meeting, some ministers attending in person in Downing Street, others joining remotely.

The focus will be on Gaza – and the latest move from many to see if, collectively, the beginnings of a solution can be found to the horrific pictures we’re currently seeing from the Middle East.