President Trump on Tuesday accused Britain of “an act of great stupidity” for agreeing to end British sovereignty over the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, in a blow to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s attempts to cultivate the president.
The incendiary comments reversed the Trump administration’s previous policy over the Chagos Islands, a remote archipelago that Britain held since the colonial era and that houses a strategically important U.S.-British military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island in the chain.
In 2024, Mr. Starmer’s government agreed to relinquish control of the islands to Mauritius after years of negotiations, following a ruling by the United Nations’ highest court that found Britain had acted unlawfully by detaching the archipelago from Mauritius in 1965.
Under the terms of the deal, the United States and Britain could continue to operate the military base on Diego Garcia for an initial period of 99 years. At the time Secretary of State Marco Rubio praised the deal and said that Mr. Trump had “expressed his support for this monumental achievement,” which “reflects the enduring strength of the US-UK relationship.”
In a post on Truth Social on Tuesday morning, Mr. Trump abruptly reversed that position and argued that the decision strengthened the case for the United States to acquire Greenland.
“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,” he wrote.
He added: “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.”
Mr. Trump’s comments are an embarrassment for Mr. Starmer, who has courted the president assiduously, and the comments were immediately seized on by the prime minister’s domestic political adversaries. Nigel Farage, a longtime ally of Mr. Trump and the leader of the right wing populist Reform U.K. party, wrote on social media, “Thank goodness Trump has vetoed the surrender of the Chagos islands.”
Less than a day before Mr. Trump made his comments, Mr. Starmer gave a speech in Downing Street calling for calm discussion with the United States over Greenland and the threat of American tariffs. Like other countries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Britain has expressed its support for the right of Greenlanders to decide their own destiny.
Stephen Castle is a London correspondent of The Times, writing widely about Britain, its politics and the country’s relationship with Europe.
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