Trump’s latest attack on UK ‘not normal’, says top Starmer ally after Chagos U-turn
One of Sir Keir Starmer’s closest allies said Donald Trump’s approach to geopolitics was “not normal” after the US president launched a scathing attack on Britain’s Chagos Islands deal.
Trump’s latest foray on social media saw him describe the plan to hand over the islands to Mauritius as “a great deal of stupidity” on Tuesday morning.
His criticism came just a day after Sir Keir Starmer appealed for calm at a time when relations between NATO allies and the US are increasingly strained over the president’s threats against Greenland.
Following Trump’s comments, the Prime Minister’s Chief Secretary, Darren Jones, insisted Sir Keir’s approach to Mr Trump had yielded results, but admitted: “It is not normal for geopolitical discussions to be handled in this way.”
“The Prime Minister has shown that dedicated, proper British diplomacy can work,” he told the Today programme, referring to US-UK trade deals.
“It’s noisy. I understand that. It’s challenging. It’s not normal for geopolitical discussions to be conducted in this way. But British diplomacy is working.”
This comes after the US president launched a scathing attack on the movement while ramping up talk of seizing Greenland territory in the Arctic.
Reacting sharply in an online rant, the US president wrote: “Surprisingly, our ‘brilliant’ NATO Ally, the United Kingdom, is now planning to give Diego Garcia Island, a vital US Military Base, to Mauritius, and is doing so WITHOUT ANY REASON.”
He added: “The UK’s donation of hugely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY and a long list of National Security reasons why Greenland should be purchased. Denmark and its European Allies MUST DO THE RIGHT THING.”
Following Trump’s posts on social media, the British government responded by saying that the agreement was publicly welcomed by the United States.
“We took action because the base in Diego Garcia was under threat because court decisions undermine our position and prevent it from operating as intended in the future,” a government spokesman said.
“This agreement has been publicly welcomed by the United States, Australia and all other Five Eyes allies, as well as key international partners such as India, Japan and South Korea.”
Trump told Sir Keir during his visit to the White House in February last year that he was “inclined to go along with your country” and “had a feeling that things would turn out very well”.
In another post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump shared an AI-generated image of himself and his vice president, J.D. Vance, planting a U.S. flag in a snowy landscape with a sign reading “Greenland, U.S. territory, est. 2026.”
A subsequent post showed a doctored image of the US president meeting European leaders at the White House, along with a map with the US, Canada and Greenland highlighted in the colors of the American flag.
Labor Party MP and Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Emily Thornberry said the UK should stand its ground against what she called “presidential trolling”.
Thornberry calls it an “example of presidential trolling” and told Radio 4’s Today program that the UK should take Trump “seriously” and not “literally”.
He told Radio 4’s Today program that Britain needed to take Trump “seriously” and not “literally”.
Meanwhile, the US president heads to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum on Tuesday. But one of his senior ministers said Sir Keir would not go to the meeting because “there are a lot of challenges at the time”.
Trump’s plans to create a “Peace Board” to examine issues such as Gaza have also come under scrutiny.
Asked whether the British government would join “any so-called peace board involving Putin”, Mr Jones told BBC Radio 4: “We will not join anything under any circumstances, no, and it is right that officials are having these discussions with their counterparts to understand what that might look like. I agree that President Putin is not a man of peace and it would be absurd for him to be on a peace board.”
Asked whether Greenland meant NATO was ‘dying if not dead’ because of the problems between Britain and other Western countries with Trump, Jones said: “We are not giving up on NATO.”
