British ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson, known at home as the “Prince of Darkness,” once said President Donald Trump was a “danger to the world… little short of a white nationalist and racist.”
Now, after successfully closing one trade deal with the U.S. president, he has drastically changed his tune.
In a newly published interview with The Sunday Times, Lord Mandelson described Trump as “a unique politician” and a “phenomenon,” showing that the British politician might have earned a new understanding of the U.S. president over several encounters in the last few months.
“I’ve never been in a town or a political system that is so dominated by one individual. Usually, you’re entering an ecosystem rather than the world of one personality. But he is a phenomenon. A unique politician,” Mandelson told the British newspaper.
An Exchange Of Pleasantries Across The Atlantic
Mandelson, a Labour Party member, became Britain’s ambassador to the U.S. in February of this year, right after Trump’s inauguration. In his home country, he is a very well-known figure—and someone who many would recognize as fit to take on such a difficult role, as the U.K. tries to maintain the “special relationship” with the U.S. at a time of growing uncertainty.
During his early career in the late 80s and early 90s, Mandelson became the communications guru behind Labour’s rise to power under Tony Blair and one of the first figures to be recognised as a “spin doctor” in the U.K. His expertise in the “dark arts” of backroom political strategy and tactics earned him the nickname Prince of Darkness on the Left of the Party, and it stuck.
At the age of 71, the politician now has a long career behind him which survived some notable downfalls. His political enemies likely thought he was done for after his second resignation from the government in January 2011, when he was accused of using his position to influence the passport applications of a businessman.
The politician went on to become European Commissioner for Trade from 2004 to 2008 and first secretary of state under Gordon Brown’s government between 2009 and 2010. In December, he was chosen by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to replace Dame Karen Pierce as ambassador to the U.S.
If his political background as a political operator rather than an experienced diplomat and previous statements made it seem Mandelson an odd choice, the facts have proved skeptics wrong. In May, when the two met at the Oval Office, Trump greeted Mandelson with a very friendly: “God, you’re a good-looking fellow, aren’t you?”
In a show of appreciation, Mandelson later described Trump as a “people person” who takes people at “face value.”
The comment cleared the air after Mandelson had been called by Trump-aligned strategist Chris LaCivita an “absolute moron,” in what appeared as a reaction to Mandelson’s previously disparaging comment about the president. The British politician had already tried to make amends for those comments, going to Fox News in late January to say those have been “ill-judged and wrong” and claiming he had “fresh respect” for the president.
Trump’s ‘Kernel Of Truth’
In the interview with The Sunday Times, the British politician reiterated this point, saying that there is often “truth” in what the president says, even when what he says sounds like an exaggeration made to infuriate Americans.
“He’s not only a unique politician—he’s also going to be one of the most consequential presidents in American history,” he said.
“He has this sense of history, this grasp of power which I think perhaps recent inhabitants of the White House haven’t quite seen. He is not a man for endless seminars and thinking,” he added.
“He’s not a victim of analysis paralysis. He has a very quick, easy way of grasping the core points about an issue. And let’s be honest: more often than not, there’s a kernel of truth in everything he says.”
Mandelson brought the Trump administration’s aggressive anti-immigration agenda as an example of this, saying that while ICE mass deportations have been portrayed negatively in the media, the U.S. president’s goal is well-intended.
“If you take immigration, for example, people feel that the work of ICE and the policy of deportation is extreme. But what he’s trying to roll back was an extreme opening up of the Mexican border,” he said.
“Allowing anyone from anywhere in the world to fly in and simply pass into the United States—and fan out across the country without any control or management! The public wouldn’t stand it.”
In the U.K, Starmer has also been pushing for stricter measures against immigration, warning that Britain risked becoming an “island of strangers”—a term that sparked harsh criticism among Labour voters and some members of parliament.
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