President Donald Trump requested a bespoke red dispatch box modeled on those used by British government ministers, according to documents released on Monday.
The revelation was made in the newly released files linked to Peter Mandelson’s appointment as U.K. ambassador to the U.S.
The files were released by the U.K. Parliament to investigate potential failures in vetting and decision-making around Mandelson’s controversial appointment as U.K. ambassador to the U.S. amid his ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Mandelson maintained a long-standing friendship with Epstein even after the pedophile’s 2008 conviction for sex offenses.
Mandelson was ultimately sacked as U.K. ambassador to the U.S. in September 2025 over his links to Epstein.
Dozens of email exchanges between Mandelson and senior British government officials were released as part of the files.
Some of the emails revealed that Trump requested a red dispatch box as a gift from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Red boxes, also known as ministerial boxes, are secure cases used by government ministers and officials to transport important documents.
According to the files, Trump wanted the box to have its own gold crest and the inscription “President of the United States.”
Meanwhile, according to an email from former top British Foreign Office official Sir Olly Robbins, the British embassy in Washington was “clear” that the box would “mean the most to the President.”
The emails reveal that the box was discussed in depth between senior British Foreign Office officials ahead of Trump’s state visit to Britain in September last year, and that it was priced and designed, with the manufacturer saying it would take 8–10 weeks to make.
But the files show there were delays in making the box. Amid those delays, Mandelson told then–No 10 chief of staff Morgan McSweeney that he’d “gone tonto” and described the “saga” as “like something out of [the British TV comedy show] The Thick of It”.
In a separate message that month about the proposed gift, he also said the issue had already been raised as far back as February, adding: “Nobody had the wit to say anything. What incompetence.”
Trump ultimately received the red box, and Mandelson later told U.K. Secretary of State for Energy Security, Ed Miliband, in a message on 22 July 2025, that the “Red Box made a big impact!”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
