Trump uses Neville Chamberlain jibe to mock Starmer over stance on Iran | Donald Trump
Donald Trump appeared to liken Keir Starmer to Neville Chamberlain in his latest disparaging comments about the prime minister who refuses to support US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
The comments, made during an event at the White House on Easter Monday, underline Trump’s unease with Starmer’s skepticism about the aims and legality of the conflict; This view was not changed by the US president’s jokes.
In somewhat vague comments, Trump told reporters Britain had “a long way to go” and added: “We won’t want another Neville Chamberlain, agree? We don’t want Neville Chamberlain.”
Chamberlain is most commonly used by today’s politicians as a warning against opposing tyrannical regimes because of his discredited pre-World War II policy of trying to placate Hitler’s Germany.
Trump, whose rhetoric has become increasingly erratic during the Iran conflict, now in its sixth week, has abandoned his once friendly approach towards Starmer and began repeatedly mocking the prime minister.
During the Easter lunch conversation at the White House, footage of which emerged on Friday, Trump claimed Starmer, in a derogatory impersonation of Starmer, said he “should ask my team” about sending UK aircraft carriers to support the conflict.
British officials said the United States never requested the ships and Britain did not offer them. Following Trump’s latest comments, government sources pointed to Starmer’s previous comments, including at a press conference last week, that the UK’s national interests were always put first.
UK aircrews and ground forces launched defensive operations in the Middle East and the Ministry of Defense said RAF artillery shot down “large numbers” of Iranian drones overnight on Sunday.
Starmer did not directly respond to Trump’s insults and taunts; beyond that, he said, he would stick to his position of not involving Britain in offensive operations “whatever the pressure and noise.”
Other world leaders were more direct. Last week, after Trump mentioned the idea of pulling the United States out of NATO, French President Emmanuel Macron responded with obvious discomfort: “You have to be serious. When you want to be serious, you don’t say every day the opposite of what you said the day before. Maybe you shouldn’t talk every day.”
In an expletive-filled post on social media on Easter Sunday, Trump told Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, a key international shipping passage, to all ships and said that if that did not happen by Tuesday, the United States would target civilian infrastructure in Iran, a possible war crime.
Asked about Monday’s comments, UK Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “This is not the language or approach the government would adopt.”
He added: “Our approach as a UK government, the approach that Prime Minister Keir Starmer has put forward, is that we will not engage in offensive action, we will not engage in offensive action.”
