Trump tells Starmer to ‘straighten out’ the UK and dubs London a ‘problem’ in lengthy White House briefing as he issued an ominous warning to Greenland

Donald Trump has firmly told Sir Keir Starmer to ‘fix’ Britain, claiming London has ‘a lot of problems’.

At a White House news conference Tuesday night on the one-year anniversary of his second inauguration, Trump spoke for more than an hour about a wide range of topics and touted his administration’s accomplishments before taking questions from reporters.

Asked about his relationship with Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, the US leader said: ‘They need to fix their country; ‘When you look at London there are a lot of problems, when you look at Paris there are a lot of problems.’

He said both Britain and France face problems with immigration and energy, and called on the UK to stop the use of windmills and instead use gas and oil from the North Sea.

Trump also issued an ominous warning about how far he might go in Greenland and Denmark, where both Britain and France have interests, saying: ‘You’ll find out.’

Republican president admits he didn’t do it He has said he ‘gets it’ when he speaks to the British Prime Minister or Macron since posting about them on Truth Social this morning.[s] He gets along very well with them’, but added: ‘They get a bit rude when I’m not around.

‘You know. I love both; ‘They’re both liberals.’

In Trump’s post about Starmer on Tuesday morning, the American leader was seen describing Britain’s decision to ‘give away the island of Diego Garcia’ as ‘an act of HUGE stupidity’.

Asked about his relationship with Keir Starmer (pictured) and French president Emmanuel Macron he said: ‘They need to fix their country’

This is despite having previously signed a £3.4bn deal to lease the island back to Mauritius.

Asked whether he thought the deal should no longer go ahead, the US president told a White House press conference: ‘I think they were, you know, originally when they were going to do this, they were talking about doing some sort of ownership concept but now they’re actually just looking at renting and selling.

‘And I’m against it. It’s a very un-Greenlandic place, but it’s a very important place in the world. It’s nowhere near Greenland, but I think they should keep it.

‘I don’t know why they’re doing it, do they need the money?’

“There are many meetings planned in Greenland and I think things will go quite well,” he added, referring to his imminent attendance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he will leave Washington on Tuesday evening.

Ahead of Trump’s White House briefing, Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said at a separate news conference that the Arctic island’s population was growing.

He added that authorities should prepare for a possible military invasion despite pressure from Trump, saying: ‘A military conflict is unlikely, but cannot be ruled out.’

French President Emmanuel Macron gestures while speaking at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos on January 20, 2026.

US President Donald Trump speaks at a press conference at the White House as he enters the first year of his second term in office on January 20 in Washington, DC, USA

Trump also touched upon the US’s relationship with NATO and said: ‘I think there will be something that will be very good for everyone.

‘As I have said before, no one has done more for NATO than me in every respect. To get them up to 5 percent of GDP… they didn’t pay 2 percent, they are paying 5 percent. They take a lot of things from us and give them to Ukraine.

‘I think we will find a solution that NATO will be very happy with and we will be very happy with. But we need it for security, we need it for national security and even world security.’

It comes after Keir Starmer today continued to press ahead with his controversial £30bn gift to the Chagos Islands, despite Trump calling it ‘an act of great stupidity’.

The Prime Minister ordered Labor MPs to introduce legislation on the deal tonight, saying the US continues to support the plan, which he said showed President Trump’s “total weakness”.

Trump, who approved the deal last year, stunned ministers by slamming Labor’s decision to hand over the islands to China’s ally Mauritius.

In an angry post on the Truth Social platform, he wrote: ‘Shockingly, our “brilliant” NATO Ally, the United Kingdom, is now planning to hand over Diego Garcia Island, a vital US Military Base, to Mauritius, and is doing so WITHOUT ANY REASON.

It comes after Keir Starmer today continued to press ahead with his controversial £30bn gift to the Chagos Islands, despite Trump calling it ‘an act of great stupidity’. Aerial view of Diego Garcia pictured

Reform UK sources suggest Nigel Farage’s lobbying may also have contributed to the President’s change of heart (file image)

‘There is no doubt that China and Russia noticed this act of complete weakness.’

He highlighted the decision as a reason to pursue Greenland, writing: ‘It is an act of HUGE Idiocy for the UK to give away hugely important territory and is one in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland should be acquired.’

He also reiterated his opposition to the agreement. Trump told reporters: ‘They [the UK] Originally they were going to do this, they were talking about doing some kind of ownership concept. But now they’re actually considering renting and selling.

‘I am against this. It looks nothing like Greenland, but it is a very important region of the globe.

‘I think they should keep it. I don’t know why they don’t; Do they need money?’

Downing Street yesterday played down the row, pointing to comments by Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden, who said he had vented his ‘disappointment’ at Mr Trump’s opposition to a bid to take over Greenland.

Mr McFadden, a close ally of the Prime Minister, said: ‘I think what we saw last night was a series of posts criticizing some world leaders. This could tell us that the President is frustrated right now.

‘I don’t believe this is really about Chagos, I think it’s about Greenland and the best way to resolve this is to have a dialogue with the Danish government and that’s what we’ve said all along.’

Under the terms of the deal, England will lease back Diego Garcia for 99 years at a cost of up to £30 billion. But critics of the deal lined up to urge the Prime Minister to reconsider.

Kemi Badenoch said President Trump was “right on the issue.” The Conservative leader told the BBC: ‘There is no reason why we should hand over British territory on which there is a strategic military base and pay £35 billion in compensation to apologize to Mauritius. This is crazy.

‘The only ones who benefit from this are Russia and China. ‘This is a stupid idea and Keir Starmer is completely wrong about it.’

Dame Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, urged ministers to heed Mr Trump’s advice and abandon legislation that would cement the deal. He said the US President was offering Labor a ‘last chance’ to avoid ‘an act of self-harm’.

Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said enemy states such as Russia, China and Iran were ‘laughing at us’.

The US administration approved the agreement last year and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it ‘secured the long-term, stable and effective operation of the joint US-UK military facility in Diego Garcia, which is critical to regional and global security’.

But critics believe the risks were never properly explained to Mr. Trump.

The Mail revealed this month that exiled Chagos Islanders had appealed to Mr Trump as a last resort to intervene, even offering to name an island after him if he blocked the plan.

In a letter to the US President, the Islanders’ First Minister Misley Mandarin warned that the “very bad deal” would put the joint military base “at risk”.

He warned that the deal, brokered by Sir Keir’s national security adviser Jonathan Powell, could give China ‘leverage’ over the base, which is seen as a military asset. He said Mauritius would ‘retain sovereignty over every square inch of the US base’.

Reform UK sources have suggested that Nigel Farage’s lobbying activities may also have contributed to the President’s change of heart.

Mr Farage said: ‘Americans have woken up to the fact that they have been lied to. They were told that Britain had no choice but to surrender the Chagos Islands. This was totally untrue and now they are angry with us.’

The then British foreign secretary, David Lammy, said last year that Mr Trump had the right to veto the deal, adding: ‘If President Trump doesn’t like the deal, it won’t go forward. ‘The reason for this is that we have common military and intelligence interests with the USA.’

Mr Farage said the US President had now ‘vetoed the surrender’ of the islands.

But Downing Street said the deal would go ahead and instructed Labor MPs to vote to reject the changes to the law introduced by the Lords.

Government sources said they expected the legislation to be passed within a few weeks.