Trump launches attack on Starmer as UK-US tensions mount

Donald Trump renewed his attacks on Sir Keir Starmer on a bleak day for the legendary “special relationship” between Britain and the US, as the president criticized “problems” in London and the UK’s policies on immigration and green energy.

Trump also used the White House press conference on Tuesday to increase his criticism of the British agreement to transfer sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, including the British-American air base, to Mauritius. He had previously claimed that the deal was full of “weakness” and “stupidity.”

The president’s latest attacks against Britain highlighted growing tensions between the two traditional allies, as the prime minister turned his back on Trump’s proposed “peace council” initiative, opening the way to better relations with China.

Trump insisted he got along very well with Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, but his news conference heightened the impression of increasingly dysfunctional relations.

“They always treat me well,” the president told reporters. “They get a little rough when I’m not around, but when I’m there they’re very nice to me.”

He added: “You know, I like both of them. They’re both liberal. They have to straighten out their countries. London has a lot of problems, and if you look at Paris, you’ll find a lot of problems. They have two problems: immigration and energy.”

Trump also appears to have misunderstood Starmer’s deal on sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, suggesting that the UK was making a profit from transferring the archipelago to Mauritius.

When asked about the deal, Trump said: “It’s a reasonably important area of ​​the world, and it’s nowhere near Greenland. But I think they should keep it. I don’t know why they wouldn’t. Do they need the money?”

Britain will pay more than £100 million a year for a long-term lease of Diego Garcia air base from Mauritius. Downing Street declined to comment on Trump’s claim.

Earlier, Trump said in a post on his “Truth Social” platform that Britain had shown “complete weakness” regarding the agreement, which his administration had previously supported.

British officials believe Trump was trying to suggest that if Britain could cede its sovereignty over the Chagos Islands — even with US approval — Denmark might one day hand Greenland over to China. “This is the hypothesis,” one official said.

Meanwhile, Starmer said this week that he was “talking with allies about the terms of the Peace Council,” a body proposed by Trump to oversee Gaza and other hotspots in the world.

But British officials said that Starmer would not join a body that charges exorbitant membership fees for a permanent seat and whose members include Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Washington sent invitations to dozens of heads of state and government to join the peace council, which Trump will chair. Countries that join the Council will serve for a limited period of three years unless they contribute more than one billion dollars, according to the text of its charter.

The Kremlin said this week that Trump had invited Putin to sit on the board. It will be chaired by an advisory committee including former UK Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair.

One UK official said the “official position” was that the government was considering whether to join the board.

They added: “But you don’t have to be a political genius to realize that paying a billion dollars in taxpayer money to sit on the board with Putin is not going to work. I don’t think people will sign up for that.”

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told MPs on Tuesday: “Putin is not a man of peace, and I do not think he belongs to any organization with the name peace.”

Trump’s initial social media attack on Starmer caught officials in the UK by surprise, although the two leaders had a cool conversation on Sunday about the president’s aspirations to control Greenland, an approach the prime minister called “absolutely wrong.”

While Starmer was digesting Trump’s attack, the government in another part of Whitehall was on the verge of giving the long-awaited green light for the establishment of a Chinese “super embassy” in London, a scheme that has previously drawn criticism in Washington.

The evacuation of the new embassy – which Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel called “a massive spy hub in the heart of our capital” – paves the way for Starmer to visit Beijing next week, the first visit by a British prime minister since 2018.

With Trump claiming that China poses a threat in the Arctic that can only be addressed by US control of Greenland, the embassy decision and Starmer’s planned visit come at a very sensitive moment.

Starmer also declined to travel to Davos to meet Trump on Wednesday. Labor officials said Starmer wanted to focus on local issues where possible.

Despite the multiple flashpoints, Starmer’s instincts are to continue talking to Trump and trying to contain public disagreements. “What’s the alternative?” asked Lord Peter Mandelson, who was sacked by Starmer as UK ambassador to Washington last year. “Shout at him from across the street with a megaphone?”

A major test of the relationship looms with plans, not officially confirmed, for King Charles to visit Washington in July to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a visit that is in theory a matter for Buckingham Palace.

Trump’s public criticism of Britain and occasional suggestions that he would like to take control of Canada, where King Charles is head of state, have made the planned visit particularly political, and one Downing Street will be closely involved with.

Starmer resisted suggestions that Britain might threaten the US with tit-for-tat tariffs to influence Trump’s ambitions in Greenland.

The British Prime Minister warned that a trade war against a much larger US economy would harm Britain.

A royal visit would appear to be one of the few tools available to Starmer, although British officials rejected the idea of ​​canceling the trip, insisting it was an important show of “people-to-people” affection between the UK and the US.