David Cameron, Britain’s former prime minister and current foreign secretary, held talks with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Monday as part of efforts to urge Republicans to pass a $60 billion aid package for Ukraine to support.
Cameron, 57, is heading to Washington DC for meetings with his US counterpart, Antony Blinken, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, but will not meet with President Joe Biden or House Speaker Mike Johnson.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Trump and Cameron discussed the role of Ukraine, Israel and NATO in the world, according to reports The Daily Telegraph.
An unnamed official called the meeting “productive” as the pair also discussed defense spending while emphasizing the “breadth and strength” of the “special relationship.”
It is Johnson who has the power to call for a vote in Congress on the security package. The Louisiana conservative has so far bowed to pressure from Trump and the pro-Putin wing of the Republican Party by not calling for a vote.
A prominent member of the House of Representatives, Georgian Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, told Sky News in a February interview that Cameron could “kiss my ass” after the former prime minister compared those who did not support Ukraine to the appeasement of Adolf Hitler in the lead. until the Second World War.
In a memoir published after his resignation, former British Prime Minister David Cameron called Trump: ‘Protectionist, xenophobic, misogynistic’
Trump was a supporter of Brexit, the 2016 referendum that saw Britain leave the European Union and led to Cameron’s resignation
During a February 2024 interview, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene mocked Cameron’s claim that not funding Ukraine was akin to appeasement of Adolf Hitler in the lead-up to World War II.
Cameron has previously spoken of Trump in less than glowing terms, calling him “stupid,” “wrong” and “misogynistic.” The Conservative resigned as prime minister after the 2016 Brexit referendum, which saw Britain leave the European Union.
Trump approved that vote. In a memoir published after his resignation, Cameron called Trump: “Protectionist, xenophobic, misogynistic.”
Cameron said last week he would meet Johnson and urge him to approve the $60 billion military aid package for Ukraine, which he has held up for months.
“Success for Ukraine and failure for Putin are essential to American and European security,” Cameron said in a statement. He said it was important to show Russian President Vladimir Putin that “aggression does not pay.”
“The alternative would only embolden Putin in further attempts to redraw Europe’s borders by force, and would be heard clearly in Beijing, Tehran and North Korea.”
The State Department said Cameron would meet with congressional leaders from both the Republican and Democratic sides.
Last month, Taylor Greene, a pro-Putin member of the House of Representatives, introduced a motion to remove Johnson from his role as chairman of government spending.
The State Department spokesman did not say what Cameron and Trump, the Republican candidate in November’s presidential election against Biden, would discuss.
“It is standard practice for ministers to meet opposition candidates as part of their routine international engagements,” the spokesperson said.
Britain has been a staunch ally of Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022, but Cameron will emphasize that the United States is the “key stone in the arch” as the pace and scale of support for Ukraine is unprecedented.
A local resident walks through the ruins of a house destroyed by recent shelling, which local Russian-installed authorities called a Ukrainian military attack
A community worker remains in a crater after rockets hit Kharkov
During the trip, Cameron will emphasize the importance of increasing economic pressure on Russia and giving Ukraine “the military and humanitarian support it needs to hold the line this year and go on the offensive in 2025.” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Cameron would also discuss the maritime routes for aid to Gaza during the trip, and push for a full and transparent investigation into the “totally unacceptable” deaths of seven aid workers, including three Britons, there, it added.
Cameron will reiterate Israel’s right to self-defense in accordance with international law after the October 7 Hamas attacks, but will emphasize that major changes must be made to ensure the safety of aid workers on the ground, his office said.
In February, Trump told a campaign group that he would allow Russia to do “whatever they want” with NATO allies, due to that country’s apparent lack of military spending.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the drone strikes on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine “a very dangerous provocation.”
“This is a very dangerous practice that will have very bad, negative consequences in the future,” Peskov said during his daily conference call with reporters.
The UN nuclear watchdog agency confirmed on Sunday the drone attacks on one of the plant’s six reactors, which left one casualty, but did not pin responsibility on either side.
An official from Energoatom, the Ukrainian atomic energy company, blamed Russia for the attacks, saying it was “a provocation” orchestrated to defame Ukraine.
The factory has been repeatedly caught in the crossfire since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and seized the factory shortly afterwards.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, a UN body, has repeatedly expressed concern about the plant, fearing a possible nuclear catastrophe.
The attacks did not endanger the nuclear facility, which Kremlin forces have occupied and managed in southern Ukraine since shortly after the war began more than two years ago, the IAEA said.
Propaganda and disinformation have been used as weapons by both sides during the conflict, and both sides have accused the other on other occasions of planning attacks on the plant.
Last July, Ukraine and Russia accused each other of planning to attack the Zaporizhia factory, although neither side provided evidence to support their claims.