AYLESBURY, England — President Donald Trump’s joint press conference with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer turned a tad awkward on Thursday, as the two leaders sought not to let a free speech debate derail Trump’s state visit.
Trump and a contingent of his domestic political allies, especially Vice President JD Vance, have directly accused the British government of censoring speech in recent months.
Meanwhile, Trump has come under fire from his political opponents amid his efforts to crack down on the Left in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death.
Starmer and King Charles III have been pouring on the flattery and pageantry this week in hopes of convincing Trump to take a harder stance on Russia’s war in Ukraine and finalize favorable terms for Britain on a bilateral trade deal with the United States.
Starmer did his best to dodge multiple questions about an alleged speech crackdown during the press conference, which capped off Trump’s day at Chequers, the prime minister’s country retreat.
“On free speech, that has long lived in this country. Free speech, it’s one of the founding values of the United Kingdom, and we protect it jealously and fiercely and always will, and we will bear down on any limits on free speech,” Starmer said in response to a question about the “12,000 people a year [in the UK] being arrested for social media posts.”
“I draw a limit between free speech and the speech of those that want to peddle pedophilia and suicide on social media to children, and therefore I’m all for free speech,” Starmer continued. “I’m also protecting children from things that will harm them.”
Starmer also had a chance to respond to a question regarding ABC’s decision to pull late-night host Jimmy Kimmel off the air following jokes he made about Kirk’s death earlier this week. Starmer specifically was asked, based on Kimmel’s situation and conservatives’ efforts to punish those cheering or making light of the tragedy, if “free speech [is] more under attack in Britain or America?”
Starmer avoided the question, calling Kirk’s death “shocking” and condemning political violence.
“On free speech. Not much to add to the answer I gave earlier, this country has had free speech for a very, very long time. It is part of who we are as a country, and it is the values that we fought for,” he added. “We fought for it during the Second World War alongside each other. So we need no reminding of the importance of free speech in this country.”
Trump, on the other hand, argued that Kimmel’s situation was not a speech problem.
“Well, Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else, and he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk,” Trump said. “And Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person. He had very bad ratings, and they should have fired him a long time ago. So you know, you can call that free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent.”
Trump tried to work the matter into his response when asked for an “update” on the investigation into former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen to sign clemency actions during his final weeks in office.
“They found out they were guilty, and they deleted and destroyed all information, everything you couldn’t get any of it. They found out that Nancy Pelosi actually was offered the 10,000 soldiers, and she turned them down, very bad,” Trump said during a freewheeling answer that veered into his thoughts on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. “So they deleted and destroyed all information. You talk about freedom of the press and freedom of speech, how about that one?”
On Wednesday night, Trump took his response to Kirk’s death to the next level. In a post on Truth Social, he said he planned to designate antifa as a terrorist organization.
When asked on Thursday if he agreed with that decision and if Britain would make a similar designation, Starmer danced around the question.
“We obviously will take decisions for ourselves,” Starmer responded. “I don’t want to comment on the decisions of the president, but we take our decisions ourselves.”
At the end of the press conference, both leaders stared down a matter that the White House has been seeking to bury for months: the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Starmer fired his ambassador to the United States, Lord Peter Mandelson, just before Trump’s trip, after Mandelson’s name was included in a new trove of Epstein documents published by Congress.
When asked by a reporter what he made of the Epstein-linked firing, Trump said he did not “know” Mandelson despite meeting with him in the Oval Office while announcing the U.K. trade deal framework over the summer.
Starmer said Mandelson’s firing was a response to “new information” that the U.K. government did not have while vetting Mandelson for the position, despite his decadeslong political career.
All in all, the awkward exchanges during the press conference may not have been enough to sour Trump’s perception of his three-day trip.
During his opening remarks at the press conference, Trump thanked Starmer for the “wonderful hospitality” the U.K. government showed him and first lady Melania Trump.
“We’re grateful beyond words for the spectacular honor,” he added. “We will never forget it.”
TRUMP SWAPS WINDSOR FOR CHEQUERS IN FINAL LEG OF UK STATE VISIT
You can watch Thursday’s press conference in full below.