Donald Trump today accused Sir Keir Starmer of ‘giving away’ Diego Garcia to Mauritius ‘for no reason whatsoever’ in an ‘act of great stupidity’ that he believes justifies his demand to seize Greenland.
The US president said that ‘there is no doubt that China and Russia have noticed this act of total weakness’ by Britain in the Chagos Islands.
He used his anger over Diego Garcia to justify yet again why the United States should be handed Greenland, urging Denmark and his European allies to ‘do the right thing’.
But the UK Government has hit back and insisted that the Chagos deal was backed by their closest allies including the US.
Mr Trump said in a Truth Social post today: ‘Shockingly, our “brilliant” NATO Ally, the United Kingdom, is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital U.S. Military Base, to Mauritius, and to do so FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER.
‘The UK giving away extremely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY, and is another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired. Denmark and its European Allies have to DO THE RIGHT THING.’
The US president is travelling to Davos for the World Economic Forum where he insists he will hold talks with European leaders about acquiring Greenland. Danish officials have decided skip the event in Switzerland this year.
Before boarding Air Force One he trolled European leaders by sharing an AI image of them all in the Oval Office – including Starmer and Macron – looking at a map showing Greenland as US territory. Another AI image showed Trump planting the US flag on the Arctic state next to JD Vance and Marco Rubio with a sign saying: ‘Greenland. US territory. Est 2026’.
His attacks came after Sir Keir held a Downing Street press conference where he branded Donald Trump’s trade war threats over Greenland ‘completely wrong’.
The British Government signed a treaty back in May to return sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, which will also see Britain lease back the strategically important military base on Diego Garcia for £101million a year.
Trump said of the deal: ‘There is no doubt that China and Russia have noticed this act of total weakness. These are International Powers who only recognize STRENGTH, which is why the United States of America, under my leadership, is now, after only one year, respected like never before.
‘Thank you for your attention to this matter. PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP.’
As Trump’s Chagos dig caused more chaos in Britain, it also emerged today:
The White House has previously indicated it is content to let the Chagos deal go through. Marco Rubio welcomed the ‘historic agreement’ last May.
But critics believe Trump has never been given the full picture of the risk it would pose to US operations in the Indian Ocean. And now he has made it clear he disapproves.
But Starmer’s Government today doubled down – and insisted the Chagos deal had US backing.
A government spokesperson said: ‘The UK will never compromise on our national security. We acted because the base on Diego Garcia was under threat after court decisions undermined our position and would have prevented it operating as intended in future.
‘This deal secures the operations of the joint US-UK base on Diego Garcia for generations, with robust provisions for keeping its unique capabilities intact and our adversaries out.
‘It has been publicly welcomed by the US, Australia and all other Five Eyes allies, as well as key international partners including India, Japan and South Korea’.
Yesterday Trump admitted his plan to seize control of Greenland is motivated by his Nobel Peace Prize snub.
An extraordinary leaked letter to the Prime Minister of Norway warned that Trump ‘no longer feels an obligation to think purely of Peace’ after he was denied the prize last year.
Trump has suggested Britain’s decision to cede the Chagos Islands to Mauritius is among the reasons he wants to take over Greenland.
The US president, who is travelling to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum, made the claim as he ramped up his rhetoric on acquiring the Arctic territory.
‘We have to have it. They have to have this done. They can’t protect it, Denmark, they’re wonderful people,’ Trump told reporters in Florida.
‘I know the leaders, they’re very good people, but they don’t even go there.’
Trump then fired off a flurry of posts on his Truth Social platform overnight on Tuesday about taking over Greenland, which is a territory of America’s Nato ally the Kingdom of Denmark.
He said he had a ‘very good’ telephone call with Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte concerning Greenland.
‘As I expressed to everyone, very plainly, Greenland is imperative for National and World Security. There can be no going back – On that, everyone agrees!’ he said in a post.
It came days after Chagos islanders made a last-ditch appeal to Trump to veto Labour’s £30billion plan to hand the vital archipelago to Mauritius.
In a letter to the US president, the islanders’ First Minister Misley Mandarin warned that the ‘very bad deal’ would ‘put at risk’ the strategically important UK-US military base on the island of Diego Garcia.
Mr Mandarin said that the deal brokered by Sir Keir’s controversial National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell, could give China ‘leverage’ over the base which is seen as a critical military asset in the Indian Ocean.
Mauritius, he says ‘would hold sovereignty over every inch of the US base’.
Mr Mandarin suggests that grateful Chagossians might even be prepared to name an island after Trump to ‘mark the moment America chose strength, fairness and long-term security over a short-term fix’.
UK ministers insist that the deal is needed to secure the future of the base following a long-running sovereignty dispute. They have agreed to hand Mauritius payments totalling around £30billion in return for a 99-year lease on Diego Garcia, which the UK currently has sovereignty over.
The deal would also end the prospect of the Chagossian people returning to the islands they were forced to leave in the late 1960s to allow for the construction of the military base.
The Government suffered four defeats in the Lords earlier this month on the legislation needed to push through the deal with Mauritius.
