Trump Calls Burnham a 'Natural Business Person' After First Meeting at UN

US President Donald Trump met British Prime Minister Andy Burnham for the first time on Tuesday, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, in talks that the British leader later described as encouraging.

The meeting lasted around 40 minutes. Afterwards, Trump praised Burnham as a "natural business person" and a patriot, saying the two had spoken numerous times by phone before their face-to-face talks. "I think right now, based on my relationship with the prime minister, Andy, I think that ... we're doing very well," Trump said.

Burnham, who replaced Keir Starmer as prime minister in July, said the connection he had felt in earlier phone calls "very much came through today". He told reporters he could work with Trump and that the two had found common ground on tackling cost-of-living pressures, ending the conflict in the Middle East and reindustrialising nations to spur growth. He added that Trump had been upbeat about Britain's prospects.

One point of friction was the Chagos Islands. Trump repeated his criticism of the deal, originally struck under Starmer, to cede sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius while retaining control of the Diego Garcia air base on a 99-year lease. He called it a "terrible" deal and said Burnham would look at it. Burnham said he had inherited the issue and would work to find a resolution with the US and other parties.

Burnham also signalled he would stand firm on the right of Falkland Islanders to self-determination and to remain British, after Trump said in August he was reviewing the US position on the islands and Argentine President Javier Milei threatened sanctions on oil companies drilling there.

Other bilateral sticking points, including Britain's decision to block imports from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and its refusal to back the US over the Iran war, were navigated without escalation.

With the meeting behind him, Burnham is turning his attention to artificial intelligence. At a business roundtable that included Apple executive chairman Tim Cook and Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser, he said he would use a speech later on Tuesday to make the case for Britain and to help establish a single set of global principles and standards for AI. He described Britain as having endured a decade of political turbulence since the 2016 vote to leave the European Union and said he wanted to be a "circuit breaker" by offering a clear 10-year plan for the country.