Trump rebukes Starmer again for not letting US attack Iran from UK bases | Donald Trump
Donald Trump launched a deeply personal attack on Keir Starmer after the US refused to allow him to launch the first strikes on Iran from British bases, telling reporters: “The person we are facing is not Winston Churchill.”
In his latest extraordinary salvo, the US president said he was unhappy with Britain despite the prime minister finally acknowledging that the US could use Diego Garcia for attacks on Iran’s missile facilities.
Trump criticized Starmer for the third time in 24 hours over Britain’s refusal to help with the initial attacks, underlining his disappointment that Western allies did not publicly support the action.
He told the Sun on Monday that “the relationship is definitely not the same” as a result of the decision, and in an interview with the Telegraph he said Starmer had taken too long to allow the US to use UK bases.
Starmer has previously been praised for his ability to maintain relations with the volatile US president, but in the House of Commons on Monday he expressed doubts about US action in Tehran and its legality.
He delivered his strongest condemnation yet, saying Britain did not believe in “regime change from heaven” and defended his decision not to allow British bases to be used to carry out attacks.
But he said Britain would allow the use of Diego Garcia and RAF Fairford for defensive purposes to protect British citizens and forces, as well as allied countries in the Middle East that have been subjected to a wave of retaliatory attacks from Iran following the US-Israeli strikes.
Starmer said on Monday: “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 interests. That’s what I did and I stand by it.”
Emily Thornberry, chair of the influential foreign relations committee, said of the US president’s latest comments: “I can’t help but wonder what Churchill would think of Trump. He’s certainly no Franklin D. Roosevelt.”
European countries are having difficulty finding a common attitude towards the rapidly developing events in the Middle East. Trump threatened to cut off all trade with Spain on Tuesday after Madrid banned the United States from using bases on its soil to launch attacks on Iran.
Sitting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump said Britain had been “very, very uncooperative with that stupid candidate they have,” in an apparent reference to Diego Garcia.
He also criticized Spain for not co-operating and said the situation was “terrible”, adding: “I’m not happy with the UK either. That island you read about… It takes us three or four days to figure out where we can land.”
“It would have been much more convenient to land there instead of flying for extra hours. We were very surprised. The person we met was not Winston Churchill.”
Trump has previously compared Starmer’s position unfavorably to France’s support for the attacks and that of NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte. “He hasn’t been helpful at all. I never thought I’d see this. I never thought I’d see this from the UK. We love the UK,” he told the Sun.
“It’s actually a different world. It’s just a very different relationship with your country that we had before. It’s very sad to see that the relationship is clearly not the same.”
Trump said Starmer should also change course on North Sea oil and gas exploration and migration, as well as the Chagos Islands agreement, which the US had previously supported.
“Prevent people from coming from foreign countries who hate you,” he said. Asked whether Starmer was trying to deceive Muslim voters, Trump said that might be the case. He also falsely claimed that there were sharia courts in London.
Darren Jones, the Prime Minister’s general secretary, said: “The UK will act in the interests of British citizens regardless of their beliefs or where they are in the UK.
“I think the public will rightly say they do not want to be involved in a wider war in the Middle East, but they expect us to do all we can to defend British citizens.”
A YouGov poll shows 49 per cent of Britons oppose a US attack on Iran, compared with 28 per cent who support them. It also reveals that 32 percent support the US using RAF bases for attacks as long as the targets are limited to missile sites, while 50 percent oppose it.
