Trump blasts Starmer’s Chagos deal — hours after US backed it

Donald Trump launched a fresh attack Wednesday on Keir Starmer, lambasting a deal the British prime minster painstakingly struck with Mauritius over the Diego Garcia military base in the Chagos Islands.

In a post on Truth Social, the U.S. president — whose own State Department had signaled tentative backing for the agreement just a day before — urged Starmer: “DO NOT GIVE AWAY DIEGO GARCIA!”

The move is likely to trigger whiplash in the British government, which believed it had once again secured U.S. blessing after a Trump post in January excoriated a deal his own administration had formally backed in 2025.

Under the arrangement, struck last year after months of negotiations, the joint U.S.-U.K. base will remain under the control of both countries for the next 99 years under a lease agreement.

But Trump posted Wednesday: “I have been telling Prime Minister Keir Starmer, of the United Kingdom, that Leases are no good when it comes to Countries, and that he is making a big mistake by entering a 100 Year Lease with whoever it is that is ‘claiming’ Right, Title, and Interest to Diego Garcia, strategically located in the Indian Ocean.”

The Mauritian government — which has long claimed it was forced to give up the Chagos Islands to make way for the base in the 1960s — will receive payments from the U.K. for the new set-up, and gains ultimate sovereignty over the former British imperial possession.

While Trump on Wednesday nodded to a “strong and powerful” relationship with the U.K., he warned Starmer “is losing control of this important Island by claims of entities never known of before.”

“In our opinion, they are fictitious in nature,” he added.

In an apparent warning that the U.S. could exert further pressure if tensions ramp up in the Middle East, Trump said: “Should Iran decide not to make a Deal, it may be necessary for the United States to use Diego Garcia, and the Airfield located in [England’s] Fairford, in order to eradicate a potential attack by a highly unstable and dangerous Regime — An attack that would potentially be made on the United Kingdom, as well as other friendly Countries.”

Starmer, he said, should “not lose control, for any reason, of Diego Garcia, by entering a tenuous, at best, 100 Year Lease.”

Allowing the land to be taken away would be “a blight on our Great Ally.”

The U.S. president concluded: “We will always be ready, willing, and able to fight for the U.K., but they have to remain strong in the face of Wokeism, and other problems put before them. DO NOT GIVE AWAY DIEGO GARCIA!”

The attack comes just a day after the U.S. Department of State issued a statement saying it “supports” the agreement, a move interpreted as progress in London. Legislation finalizing the agreement was expected to return to the House of Lords next week after being delayed.

The stated aims of the deal are to settle the future of the disputed territory and to “complete the process of decolonisation of Mauritius,” with the U.K. arguing it had moved to head off potential legal action in international courts.

Senior opposition figures in Britain’s Conservative and Reform UK parties have been lobbying against the deal, which will cost Britain around £3.4 billion over the initial 99-year lease.

The U.K. Foreign Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sam Blewett contributed reporting.