Trump: Chagos deal is ‘act of stupidity’

Donald Trump has attacked Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius as an “act of stupidity”.

On Tuesday morning, the US president said the agreement to hand over the territory – which contains a joint US-UK military base – was made “for no reason whatsoever”.

Mr Trump also cited the agreement as a reason why America should take control of Greenland – a demand that has already harmed relations between the UK and the US.

Mr Trump also shared a series of inflammatory images of a US takeover of Greenland and Canada.

The AI-generated images, shared on his Truth Social network, depicted Mr Trump, Mr Rubio and JD Vance, the vice president, planting an American flag on Greenland.

They also showed a map in the Oval office that featured Canada, Greenland and Venezuela as US territories.

Sir Keir signed the Chagos deal last May after declaring it was the only way to protect the Diego Garcia military base from the influence of countries such as China. 

Mr Trump welcomed it last year, claiming the handover could “work out very well”. However, he said he needed to see the details of the agreement. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, had raised concerns.

Critics of the deal argue that Mauritius’s close relationship with China is a security risk because Beijing could spy on future military operations at the base.

The deal will force the UK to rent back Diego Garcia at a cost of more than £30bn over the next 99 years, after Mauritius said it wanted a closer relationship with Beijing.

The Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill – more commonly referred to as the Chagos Bill – will come back before MPson Tuesday. They will debate and scrutinise amendments that have been tabled by the Lords.

Sir Keir has made more than a dozen about-turns during his first 18 months in Government but is unlikely to back down on the Chagos deal because it has the support of almost all of his Labour MPs.

The Government also continues to insist it is needed for security reasonsand would avoid a costly legal battle over the territory.

Responding to Mr Trump on Tuesday, Downing Street defended the deal and noted it had been “welcomed” by the White House as well as major Western allies.

A Government spokesman said: “The UK will never compromise on our national security. We acted because the base on Diego Garcia was under threat after court decisions undermined our position and would have prevented it operating as intended in future.

“This deal secures the operations of the joint US-UK base on Diego Garcia for generations, with robust provisions for keeping its unique capabilities intact and our adversaries out. It has been publicly welcomed by the US, Australia and all other Five Eyes allies, as well as key international partners including India, Japan and South Korea.”

Sir Keir is now facing pressure to tear up the Chagos deal in the wake of the president’s comments. Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, said: “Paying to surrender the Chagos Islands is not just an act of stupidity, but of complete self-sabotage.

“I’ve been clear, and unfortunately on this issue President Trump is right. Keir Starmer’s plan to give away the Chagos Islands is a terrible policy that weakens UK security and hands away our sovereign territory. And to top it off, it makes us and our Nato allies weaker in face of our enemies.

“Keir Starmer has the chance to change course on Chagos. Conservatives call on President Trump to reconsider Greenland too.”

Nigel Farage,the Reform UK leader and a friend of the US president, has strongly opposed the Chagos handover. Last week, he raised security concerns about the agreement while condemning Mr Trump’s threats to Greenland.

In response to Mr Trump’s most recent critique, Mr Farage told The Telegraph: “The Chagos deal has sunk below the waterline.”

The US president’s comments came a day after Sir Keir warned that Britain could suffer “huge damage” from the US president’s Greenland tariffs.

Mr Trump threatened Britain and seven other Nato allies with a tax of 10 per cent on all exports to the US from February, rising to 25 per cent in June unless he was allowed to take control of Greenland. Both Denmark and Greenland have insisted the territory is not for sale.

At an emergency press conference on Monday, the Prime Minister defended the UK-US relationship as being in the British national interest on the economy, defence and security.

However, he issued a rare rebuke to Mr Trump by claiming his threat to Nato allies was “completely wrong” and insisting the future of Greenland was for Greenland and Denmark to decide.

[Source: Press and Journal]