‘Not buying it!’ Trump considers REJECTING Starmer’s US ambassador pick Mandelson

Donald Trump could reject Lord Peter Mandelson as Ambassador to the US in a shock twist, a bombshell report has claimed.

Sources close to the President-elect said that it is still not certain Sir Keir Starmer’s pick will be accepted by Trump after he returns to the White House.

Labour has told the Trump transition team that “it is a huge compliment” that wants to send such a key figure in the party’s recent history.

However, one source from inside the Trump team told The Independent: “We are not buying that.”

Another source added: “It is quite possible that Mandelson’s credentials could still be rejected…There are serious concerns about his links to China.”

Mandelson has been a strong advocate of closer economic ties with China, even writing an article in 2018 warning that Trump’s antipathy to China was “putting free trade at risk.”

However, there were also concerns over Starmer’s stint in power, following Elon Musk’s attacks on the Prime Minister over alleged policing of social media in the UK and grooming gangs have had an impact.

“It [Starmer’s Government] is perceived as anti-free speech by the incoming administration,” the source added. “That is a big red line.”

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A separate source claimed: “Ideally, they would like Labour to pull the Mandelson appointment and keep Dame Karen Pierce in place, but they are worried that if Labour pulls Mandelson, Labour will appoint someone even worse like Kim Darroch, Sadiq Kahn, or some far worse person.”

However, Downing Street played down the concerns of rift between the two administrations, with Starmer saying he believes his Government can have “a constructive relationship” with Trump’s White House.

The Prime Minister said “What matters to me is my relationship with the US and my relationship with the president-elect, adding that he hopes to get a trade deal “of some sort” with the US during the Trump presidency.

Lord Mandelson also wrote in his conciliatory piece, claiming: “I am listening hard to the message that millions of Americans delivered in November. As I prepare to start my role as custodian of a decades-old ‘special relationship’, I reflect on my work with multiple US administrations – Republican and Democrat – across the intensive US-UK relationship.”

Host of the hit 13th and Park podcast and former Republican strategist Adam Goodman downplayed a chance of a possible rift between Starmer and Trump.

He told GB News: “Donald Trump might have preferred another election result in the UK last time out, but the long standing strength of the relationship between the United States of America and Great Britain will weather all of that.

“There is so much in the way of common interest.”