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Trump Makes a Trade Announcement, May 8, 2025

May 8, 2025 · The White House · 1:04:54

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What happened

President Donald Trump announced a trade agreement with the United Kingdom from the Oval Office on May 8, 2025, in an event carried on the White House channel, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer joining by phone. “This morning I’m thrilled to announce that we have reached a breakthrough trade deal with the United Kingdom,” the President said, noting the date was the 80th anniversary of Victory Day in World War II: “We won the war together exactly 80 years ago. So there could be no more perfect morning to reach this historic agreement.”

The President described the agreement as “the first in a series of agreements on trade that my administration has been negotiating over the past four weeks,” with the two countries affirming “that reciprocity and fairness is an essential” principle of trade, as he put it. He also confirmed the Ukraine minerals agreement had been “fully ratified and approved by their legislative branches,” giving the United States access to what he called “a massive amount of very, very high quality rare earth.”

Why it matters

The UK agreement is the first trade deal of the administration’s tariff program — the proof-of-concept announcement for the negotiating strategy — paired on the same morning with the ratified Ukraine rare earth agreement, both presented by the President himself.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the May 8, 2025 UK breakthrough trade deal announcement and the confirmed ratification of the Ukraine rare earth agreement — flagged for the scoreboard editors; the entry itself remains review-gated.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Makes a Trade Announcement, May 8, 2025” (YouTube, May 8, 2025) — official description and broadcast transcript as aired.