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Number 10 will be nursing its whiplash this evening as Donald Trump once again throws a diplomatic hand grenade into the UK’s Chagos deal with Mauritius.
Posting on Truth Social, Donald Trump implored Sir Keir Starmer to scrap the deal, saying: “DO NOT GIVE AWAY DIEGO GARCIA!”
In his long post online, the US president claimed the prime minister is “losing control” of the military base in the Indian Ocean, and that the deal would be “a blight” on the UK.
It came just a day after the US government released a statement in which it said it “supports the decision of the United Kingdom to proceed with its agreement with Mauritius concerning the Chagos archipelago”.
Number 10 and the Foreign Office will be asking itself what has changed in the space of 24 hours.
UK government backs ‘crucial’ deal
Pushing back on Trump’s latest change of heart, a Foreign Office spokesperson said: “The deal to secure the joint UK-US military base on Diego Garcia military is crucial to the security of the UK and our key allies, and to keeping the British people safe.
“The agreement we have reached is the only way to guarantee the long-term future of this vital military base.”
So what now?
The government clearly did not see this latest Trump intervention coming, but leaders are often judged not by the events that happen on their watch but how they deal with such events.
Interestingly, only last night Starmer and Trump held a bilateral phone call – but when Number 10 released a readout of that meeting, there was no mention of the Chagos deal.
Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer at a Chequers news…
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