"Lounging on a sofa one June evening at Butterworth's, a bistro serving as the gastronomical centre of the Maga movement in Washington DC, the recently appointed British ambassador was being honoured with a plaque that indicated he was easing his way into the conservative circles around Donald Trump. The appointment of Mandelson, an architect of Tony Blair's New Labour project in the 1990s, had not been without controversy."
"Mandelson managed that by leaning into the heady conservative politics surrounding the US president, working old contacts in Trump's circles of businessmen and courting the new media right. Surrounded by conservative journalists that evening, he said that, while the two leaders' politics may differ, both Trump and UK prime minister Keir Starmer were riding the same political winds of upheaval."
"Both had received mandates, he said that evening according to British media reports in the Times, from angry people who felt they were being unheard by mainstream politics and were angry about the cost of living, angry about uncontrolled immigration and angry about uncontrolled woke culture spreading across institutions. It was a textbook performance for the once-dubbed Prince of Darkness who was testing the lines between ambassadorial deference and open flattery."
Peter Mandelson served as British ambassador in Washington, attending conservative gatherings and receiving honors that signaled rapprochement with Donald Trump's circles. The appointment provoked controversy because he was a rare political envoy, had previously resigned twice from Labour governments amid scandals, and had past association with financier Jeffrey Epstein. Mandelson acted quickly to replace his predecessor's expertise by cultivating business contacts in Trump's orbit and courting the new media right. He publicly framed both Trump and UK prime minister Keir Starmer as responding to similar voter anger over cost of living, immigration, and perceived institutional 'woke' culture. He balanced ambassadorial deference with private restraint toward the administration.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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