gotchanewsdaily.com 
The Labour peer sat on the board of the official Remain campaign during the EU referendum in 2016, then advocated for a second referendum to overturn the decision after Brexit won.
He understands well how the political institutions in Brussels work, having served as a European Commissioner for trade between 2005 and 2008, and having covered the trade role in government beforehand.
After Trump won the U.S. presidential election this month, Mandelson told the Times Britain can “have our cake and eat it” on trade, building closer ties with both the EU and U.S. rather than choosing between them.
It’s a policy area the next ambassador to the U.S. will spend much of their time negotiating, with U.K. hopes of finally securing a trade deal balanced by fears Trump will carry out his threats to impose tariffs.
Dan Mullaney, a former assistant U.S. trade representative under Trump and other presidents, who crossed paths with Mandelson in Brussels, agreed with his analysis that the U.K. would not necessarily need to choose between closer ties with Washington or Brussels. “I don’t think it’s necessarily a binary choice,” he said. “You can have deeper integration with the U.S. that is consistent with a deeper integration with the EU.”
Mullaney, now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, argued the Labour peer could be well placed as a middle-man between the U.K. and U.S. on trade.
