MeMoMu_HOS_023 MANDELSON SAGA CASTS SHADOW OVER TRUMP'S UK TRIP

' Trump even signed a “Great job!” card for the ambassador after an Oval Office photo-op. But now those around Trump are asking why he was sent to the US at all. “This makes you guys look really, really bad,” said one White House source to The Observer. '

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THE OBSERVER :
https://observer.co.uk/.../mandelson-saga-and-epstein...

Politics

Sunday 14 September 2025

Mandelson saga casts shadow over Trump’s UK trip

The former ambassador's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein will focus attention on a scandal Trump is keen to avoid

Catherine Neilan
Whitehall Editor
Hugh Tomlinson

When Donald Trump touches down on UK soil in Air Force One on Tuesday, a two-day period of peril for the US president and British prime minister Keir Starmer will begin.

What had been anticipated as a chance for the Labour government to woo the mercurial leader of the free world on vital topics, from trade and investment to Ukraine, is now viewed with dread on both sides of the Atlantic.

After a week in which Peter Mandelson was forced out of his role as the UK’s ambassador to the US over a cache of leaked emails revealing his sympathies for convicted child sexual abuse offender Jeffrey Epstein, Washington and London still fear more repercussions. For those in the White House, the potential for the scandal to engulf Trump is particularly acute. And, just like many back in Westminster, the saga is making them question Starmer’s judgment.

Despite early misgivings – one of Trump’s election campaign advisers called Lord Mandelson “an absolute moron” – and a reluctance to part with his well-respected predecessor Karen Pierce, Mandelson had won over many sceptics in the administration over the months he was there. Trump even signed a “Great job!” card for the ambassador after an Oval Office photo-op. But now those around Trump are asking why he was sent to the US at all. “This makes you guys look really, really bad,” said one White House source to The Observer.

Among UK business figures, the verdict is that Mandelson’s success navigating Trump’s tariffs was partial and undermined by wider uncertainty. “The way most people see it, it’s less shit than it could have been without him, but that’s not the same as it being good,” said one senior business adviser.
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But with hopes high that the visit would endear Trump towards the UK and reinvigorate the special relationship, it remains unclear how damaging the Mandelson affair may become. Epstein is the spectre at the table at Chequers.

Mandelson’s sacking over his friendship with Epstein – what it reveals about Starmer’s judgment and how it reflects on Trump’s own connections with the convicted sex offender – will be top of the agenda for journalists at a joint press conference expected for Trump’s final afternoon in the UK. After months of British fawning and flattery put Starmer in Trump’s good books, the stability of UK-US ties may hang on whether Trump erupts at an Epstein question and boards Air Force One in a fury.

Photograph by Getty 

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