By Christian Edwards, CNN

London (CNN) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer – buttoned-up, lawyerly, reserved – is not a man prone to effusiveness. But when he sat next to US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office last February, he began to speak like his host.

“This is really special,” said Starmer, as he brandished a letter from King Charles III inviting Trump for a second state visit to Britain. “This has never happened before. This is unprecedented… This is truly historic – an unprecedented second state visit.”

Starmer’s uncharacteristic gushing showed how his government planned to handle the US president in his second term: play to his penchant for flattery and royalty, and hope to reap rewards – from a lower tariff rate than that slapped on the European Union, to continued US support for Ukraine.

For some time, that strategy has proven rather effective. But now it appears to have faltered. Although Trump has berated all America’s allies for their reluctance to assist the United States militarily in its war with Iran, he has singled out Starmer with vitriol. “This is not Winston Churchill we’re dealing with,” Trump said on March 3. On Monday, he suggested Britain was no longer “the Rolls-Royce of allies.”

Given the venom of Trump’s broadsides against Britain, a growing number of lawmakers are questioning whether it would be wise for Charles to visit the US this spring. Although the state visit has not been confirmed, the king has widely been expected to travel to Washington, DC, in April, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of US independence.

“The last thing that we want to do is have His Majesty… embarrassed,” Emily Thornberry, a Labour member of parliament, said Tuesday. “I think it needs to be thought through very carefully as to whether or not it’s appropriate to go ahead now.”

“I suspect it would be safer to delay it,” Thornberry said on the BBC’s flagship morning radio program.

Trump’s feud with Starmer began when Britain initially refused the president’s request to use its military bases in support of the war with Iran, which Starmer understood to be illegal.

Starmer did, however, join the defense against Iran’s retaliation after British military assets in the Middle East came under attack.

Since then, Trump has both mocked Starmer’s apparent offers to help and berated him for not doing more.

On March 7, when Trump claimed that Britain was “finally giving thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East,” he told Starmer not to bother. “We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”

On Monday, after Britain and others balked at Trump’s appeal to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said London’s reluctance to send warships to de-mine the waterway was “terrible.”

The US president claimed that when he asked Starmer to send assets to help reopen the strait, the prime minister said he would need to discuss the options with his team. Trump said he replied: “You don’t have to worry about a team… you’re the prime minister; you can make a decision… It’s very disappointing.”

Trump’s disparagement of Starmer has shown the limits of Britain’s strategy of flattery, according to Peter Westmacott, who served as the British ambassador to Washington from 2012 to 2016.

“Starmer has spent 18 months trying to manage the relationship by not rising to the bait and dealing in private,” Westmacott told CNN. “He doesn’t have a huge ego himself… He tries to use calm and reason and arguments that will appeal to Trump. But it clearly d

By Eric Bradner, CNN

(CNN) — In nominating Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton for the Senate on Tuesday, Illinois Democrats chose a candidate whose message included a television ad featuring people saying “f*** Trump” over a more moderate, better-funded rival, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, as well as Rep. Robin Kelly.

Stratton’s win, fueled by a big margin in Chicago and bolstered by stronger-than-expected results in its suburbs, came in a primary election that featured an open Senate seat and four House vacancies.

Those seats are all likely to be won by Democrats in November. But the party’s deepest divides — over ideology, generational change, how to approach Israel and more — played out in Tuesday’s primaries. And ultimately, the outcomes are likely to do little to settle those long-running debates over the party’s path forward.

Candidates backed by pro-Israel and pro-cryptocurrency groups won some key races, but lost others. A progressive promising generational change fell short in one Chicago-area House contest, but the winner of that race was also opposed by AIPAC. One former member of Congress succeeded in a comeback attempt, while another conceded defeat.

Here are five takeaways from the Illinois primary:

Pritzker wins twice

The primary’s biggest winner might be Stratton’s top booster: Gov. JB Pritzker.

The Democratic governor, who is widely seen as a 2028 presidential contender, was unopposed in his own primary as he seeks a third term. But he pumped millions of dollars into lifting Stratton over two members of Congress in the race to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin.

Pritzker, the billionaire heir to a hotel chain fortune, celebrated with a fiery speech Tuesday night taking aim at Trump — making clear again where he stands as the party begins to sort through what it is looking for in its next standard-bearer.

He called the president “the carnival barker in chief” and the Republicans who support him in Congress and in the White House “grifters of corruption and selfishness, purveyors of bigotry and hatred.”

“Everything we care about is under siege from Washington,” Pritzker said.

Senate Democratic generational change

If Stratton wins in November — and in deep-blue Illinois, she is the heavy favorite against the GOP nominee, former Illinois Republican Party Chair Don Tracy — she would bring more progressive energy to the Senate as Democrats face what could be a changing of the guard.

Durbin, 81, is the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate. Stratton, 60, has said she will not support Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as the leader of the Democratic caucus.

In a speech celebrating her win Tuesday, Stratton vowed to take up a series of progressive policy goals, telling supporters that “we will fight for Medicare for all, we will fight to abolish ICE, we’ll fight for a real living wage,” and “we will fight to defend our rights and claw our democracy back from the brink.”

She said that “courage will bring this fight straight to Donald Trump’s door.”

If elected this fall, Stratton would become the sixth Black woman to serve in the Senate.

Split outcome in political comeback attempts

Two former Democratic members of Congress were attempting political comebacks on Tuesday. Only one succeeded.

Former Rep. Melissa Bean, a moderate Democrat who was swept out with the tea party wave in the 2010 midterm elections, won

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By Jessie Yeung, CNN

(CNN) — Tehran is vowing revenge after strikes killed two senior leaders on Tuesday, as Israel continues to pick off power brokers within the Iranian regime. Iran, Israel and Hezbollah continue trading strikes, with the US Embassy in Baghdad coming under fire yet again.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump is facing headwinds as allies mostly refuse to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz, and a senior administration official resigns – publicly contradicting Trump’s justification for beginning the war.

Here’s what to know on day 19.

What are the main headlines?

• Top officials killed: Iran confirmed on Tuesday that its powerful security chief Ali Larijani had been killed, announcing a “rapid strike” and “intense” attacks against Israel in retaliation. Larijani is the highest-ranking Iranian official to be killed since the death of former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war. Israel has also killed the head of the Basij, Iran’s feared paramilitary force.
• US official resigns: Joe Kent, a senior Trump-appointed US intelligence official, abruptly announced Tuesday he is stepping down from his post, citing misgivings about the administration’s war with Iran. Trump said Kent’s resignation was a “good thing” because he was “very weak on security.”
• Trump dismisses allies: Trump said the US should rethink its NATO membership as he criticized allies for not helping with the war or in securing the Strait of Hormuz. A string of American partners have balked at Trump’s request to send warships to help transport oil through the strait – though a senior official from the United Arab Emirates said on Tuesday it’s open to helping.
• Iranian oil deal: Tehran is in discussions with eight countries outside the Middle East over its offer to grant safe passage to oil traded in the Chinese currency yuan, an Iranian security source told CNN. The source did not identify the eight countries.

What’s happening on the ground?

• Baghdad targeted: Drone and rocket attacks resumed around the US Embassy in Baghdad early Wednesday local time. A hotel in Baghdad, a US diplomatic facility near Baghdad International Airport, and an oil field in southern Iraq were targets on Tuesday. Iran-backed militias claimed responsibility for some of the attacks, saying they were acting in support of Tehran.
• Iran strikes Israel: Israel said early Wednesday it was intercepting a new salvo of missiles from Iran. CNN witnessed what appeared to be a cluster munition over central Israel, with impact sites reported at various cities including Tel Aviv. Two people were killed in central Israel, according to Israel’s emergency response service.
• Hezbollah targeted: Israel continued striking Hezbollah targets across Lebanon on Tuesday, including what it called weapons facilities and launch sites. It claimed to have “eliminated several Hezbollah terrorists across southern Lebanon.” A new evacuation order by the Israeli military sparked an exodus of people from the coastal Lebanese city of Tyre overnight into Wednesday.
• US attacks Iran: The US military dropped 5,000-pound gu