At the palatial British ambassador’s residence in Washington, DC, Lord Mandelson wakes every morning to the sound of The Star-Spangled Banner.

“He told the marines that it gets him up… and makes him feel American,” said a source close to the former New Labour spin doctor, whom Sir Keir Starmer controversially announced as his link to Donald Trump back in December.

After a divisive three decades pulling the strings in Westminster, his task now is to schmooze his way into Maga land and win over key allies of the US president.

Many of them have been lobbying for the peer’s removal since he was announced, after he once labelled Mr Trump a “danger to the world”.

But Lord Mandelson’s previous warnings about the president appear to have disappeared and been replaced with a three-pronged charm offensive.

Meetings on The Hill, one-on-ones with the key cabinet secretaries and lunches with big businesses are how the former minister aims to butter up Washington’s elite.