Trump hits out at Starmer over Iran: ‘This is not Winston Churchill we’re dealing with’
Donald Trump has said he is “not happy” with Britain’s approach to the Iran conflict, saying Keir Starmer is “no Winston Churchill”.
Speaking at the White House, the US president unleashed another rant about Britain, claiming Sir Keir was “very uncooperative” and had “ruined relations” over Iran and the Chagos Islands.
Mr Trump has lashed out at Britain several times since the US launched an attack on Tehran and criticized Sir Keir for not immediately allowing the US to use British bases to attack Iran.
Speaking of European nations’ support for US action in Iran, Mr Trump added: “I’m not happy with the UK either.”
Appearing to be referring to the Diego Garcia base in the Chagos Islands, Mr. Trump added: “That island… It took us three, four days to figure out where we could land there; it would have been much more convenient to land there instead of flying the extra hours, so we were very surprised.”
“The person we are dealing with is not Winston Churchill,” he added.
Mr Trump expressed his disapproval of Britain’s deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, saying Britain had “ruined relations” over the “stupid island”.
“Spain was far from cooperative, and so was England. Now the latter is shocking, but this is not the age of Churchill,” he said.
“I will say that the UK has been very, very uncooperative with that stupid island they have, they gave it away and got a 100-year lease; maybe it’s about locals who have never seen the island before claiming it. What’s this all about?”
The deal was thrown into fresh chaos last week after a minister said a plan to hand over sovereignty over British territory had been paused after Mr Trump urged him to scrap it. The Foreign Office later claimed the minister had “misspoke” and quickly issued a statement saying there was “no pause”.
Mr Trump added that he “loves” Britain but criticized the government’s approach to energy and immigration as “terrible”.
Echoing Sir Keir’s call for the North Sea to be opened to drilling, the President told reporters: “There are windmills everywhere and they are destroying the country, they are destroying the landscapes, they are destroying beautiful fields.
“Open the North Sea.”
Speaking about London mayor Sadiq Khan, Mr Trump called him an “incompetent man” and also claimed the UK has “sharia courts that rule on the law”.
The US president has previously criticized Mr Khan several times, with the mayor of London saying he was “living rent-free in Donald Trump’s mind”.
Previously Downing Street insisted the US was still a “loyal” ally after Mr Trump made a fresh move against Sir Keir over the Middle East war.
Mr Trump claimed Sir Keir was “unhelpful” and described the trans-Atlantic dispute as “very sad”. Sun On Monday.
“This was the strongest relationship between them. We now have very strong relationships with other countries in Europe,” he said.
“It won’t matter but (Ser Keir) should have helped… should have.
“I mean, France was great. They were all great. The UK was very different from the others.”
He also said Telegram He was “very disappointed” in the prime minister after Britain’s initial decision at the weekend.
Addressing MPs on Monday, Sir Keir hit back at Mr Trump defiantly and defended his decision not to allow British military bases to be used by the US for the first wave of attacks on Iran, telling the House of Commons: “I stand by my decision.”
He said his government “does not believe in regime change from the skies”, in an apparent criticism of the US president’s bombing campaign.
Sir Keir said: “President Trump expressed disagreement with our decision not to get involved in the initial attacks, but it is my job to decide what is in Britain’s national interest. That’s what I did and I stand by it.”
