Trump’s disastrous midterms defeat partly driven by treatment of US allies, senior Republican says

Donald Trump’s disastrous midterm election results were in part a reaction to how America’s allies have been treated, a senior member of the president’s own party has said as he rejected warnings from the administration the UK had to choose between the US and the EU.

Former Republican presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson, an ex governor of Arkansas who is an outspoken critic of President Trump, said the defeat had already prompted a “re-evaluation” inside his party.

President Trump’s controversial tariffs, which have hit the UK as well as countries around the world, will be “reduced significantly” if the next president is a Republican, he predicted in an interview with The Independent.

And he insisted Britain did not have to choose between the “special relationship” with the US and closer ties with the EU. “It's not an either/ or. It's, thank goodness, it can be both and it should be both,” he said. “We want to strengthen those relationships and not weaken them.”

His comments challenge warnings from figures close to the Trump administration that Britain would have to choose between them.

Stephen Moore, a senior economic adviser to President Trump, warned in 2024 that the UK “really has to choose between the European economic model of more socialism and the US model, which is more based on a free enterprise system”.

And, earlier this year, Warren Stephens, Washington’s ambassador to the UK, said that Britain pursuing closer ties with the EU would “not be viewed favourably” in the White House if it in any way affected the trading relationship with the US. It comes days before a keenly anticipated EU-UK summit when prime minister Andy Burnham is expected to confirm closer ties with the bloc.

But Mr Hutchinson said: “The friendship with the EU and and the common support of defence and our values should be walking alongside the same shared relationship with the United States. So I see them as complementary and moving in the same direction.”

Mr Hutchinson was speaking ahead of his arrival in London on Tuesday to give the 2026 Ernest Bevin Lecture, organised by the Coalition for Global Prosperity.

He said he would use the speech to “remind our UK friends that the election that we just had spoke very clearly that the American voters are not happy with what's happening in Washington DC, under President Trump's leadership”.

“And I think that is reflective both of the conduct of the Iran War, but it is also a reflection of frustration with tariffs and what that’s cost the United States of America. And, just as significantly, how our allies have been treated,” he added.

He added there was a “re-evaluation of where the Republican Party stands on these issues” and his hope was that it would reject the isolationist, transactional agenda of the Trump premiership and “and replace it with a Republican leadership that values our allies”.

His message to his UK audience will be that the US-UK relationship is historic.

“It's based upon shared values, and whenever you look at that relationship, don't get sidetracked with short-term problems. Look at the long view and understand we have more in common than divides us, and it's critical for the peace and stability of the world that the US and US UK relationship remain strong – especially in the face of threats from China.

If the next U president is a Republican, he said: “First of all, I do expect the tariff war to be reduced significantly. It has hurt our farmers. It has reallocated production in ways that are not helpful to the United States.

“But tariffs will always be a useful tool for China, for example, you know, we need to do more defence production in the United States. The access to rare minerals needs to not be dependent upon China…”

He said the “biggest difficulty: has been “this view of a wall around the United States with a 10 per cent tariff for all countries”.