Trump to confront Starmer over immigration at G7

Donald Trump will confront Sir Keir Starmer over immigration at the G7 summit this week, White House sources have said.

The US president is expected to press the Prime Minister and other European leaders on the matter after violent unrest in Belfast drew international attention.

European diplomats feared that Mr Trump would use the unrest caused by the alleged attempted beheading of a man in Northern Ireland to demand that Europe do more, sources added.

A Sudanese asylum seeker is in custody, charged with attempted murder.

The issue of migration has become a growing point of tension between Washington and London, with the US president privately and publicly blaming Sir Keir in recent weeks for doing little to prevent migrants from entering the UK.

“Europe can be a transit point for illegal migration to the United States,” a senior Trump administration official told The Telegraph. “But more deeply, when you change the demographics and values of an allied nation, you affect the alliance.”

The official cited the Five Eyes intelligence alliance between the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

“We don’t want Five Eyes partners ruled by sharia courts. We don’t want mutual defence pacts with societies viciously hostile to the idea of the West defending or sustaining itself,” the official said.

Anna Kelly, the deputy White House press secretary, commenting on Mr Trump’s plan to raise the issue at the G7, said: “Left-wing policies of unfettered migration and destructive globalism have made once great European cities unrecognisable.”

Mr Trump has repeatedly criticised Sir Keir’s migration policies, labelling them “horrible”, and claiming that weak border controls are destroying the UK from within.

The Trump campaign successfully weaponised migration to help win power and has since regularly confronted international partners over a perceived lack of action.

Military to stop small boats

The US president has suggested that the Prime Minister use the military to stop small-boat crossings, and claimed London is heading towards implementing sharia law.

The graphic footage from Belfast of the alleged attempted beheading on Monday horrified members of Mr Trump’s administration when it was circulated. The incident and the disorder on the streets that it provokedbecame the focus of American media attention.

The victim, a man in his 40s named locally as Stephen Ogilvie, who was originally from Scotland, suffered “significant injuries” to his face, neck and back. He remains in a serious condition in hospital.

Hadi Alodid, 30, was remanded in custody at Belfast magistrates’ court on Wednesday to appear again next month.

“A bunch of us sent this link [the video of the incident] to each other and all had the same reaction: horrifying but not surprising,” the administration official told The Telegraph.

A confrontation at the G7, which begins on Tuesday in Evian, France, would be the latest in a string of clashes between Sir Keir and Mr Trump.

The US president cornered European leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, declaring that Europe was heading in the “wrong direction” with its approach to immigration.

Mr Trump argued at January’s summit that unchecked mass migration and the importation of foreign populations were destroying Western economic strength, a point he is expected to reiterate in France next week.

The US’s goals for the G7 included “working with G7 partners to strengthen responses to illegal immigration and drug smuggling”, a White House official said.

The G7 comprises Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US, with the EU as a “non-enumerated member”.

Last year, JD Vance, the US vice-president, claimed at the Munich Security Conference that European governments, including the UK’s, had retreated from their values and ignored voter concerns on migration and free speech.

The Trump administration’s counter-terrorism strategy frames Europe as an “incubator” for terrorism, arguing that mass migration and open borders threaten national security.

The US’s new counter-terrorism strategy, which was released in May, said a failure to confront terrorism, migration pressures and what the Trump administration described as “violent Left-wing” movements had made the West more at risk of attack.

The White House said “well-organised hostile groups” had exploited Europe’s “open borders and related globalist ideals”, adding “the longer current European policies persist, the more terrorism is guaranteed”.

About 31,000 migrants crossed the English Channel illegally in 2025 – the highest number in any year since the first arrivals in 2018.

The failure to tackle the crisis has seen immigration surge to the top of many voters’ concerns and fuelled the rise in popularity of Reform, led by Nigel Farage, a long-standing friend and ally of the US president.

Mr Trump and the Prime Minister were not scheduled to hold a one-on-one meeting at the G7, The Telegraph was told separately by senior US officials. However, there will be ample opportunity for the two leaders to speak on the sidelines of the two-day event in Geneva.

The pair have not held a bilateral meeting since they fell out over the Prime Minister’s refusal to let the US use military bases in Britain to carry out strikes in the war in Iran, and his decision not to send military assets to support US-Israeli operations in the Middle East.

A Government spokesman said: “This Labour Government is restoring order and control to our borders after the previous government’s open borders experiment.

“Our plan is working. Enforcement, removals and asylum decision-making are up. Net migration and the number of people in asylum hotels are down. 

“But we will continue to go further and faster to tackle illegal migration. 

“Our reforms are removing the incentives that draw illegal migrants to the UK while ramping up removals of those with no right to be on British soil.”

[Source: Daily Telegraph]