Donald Trump lashes out at UK over essential deal as he steps up Greenland warnings
Donald Trump blindsided Downing Street with an extraordinary attack on the UK during a social media spree, where he posted an AI image showing him planting a US flag on Greenland
Donald Trump detonated a series of social media bombshells about the UK and Europe(Image: Getty Images)
Donald Trump jets into a showdown with European leaders on Wednesday after accusing the UK of “stupidity” and “total weakness” for handing over the Chagos Islands.
Tonight, the US President said he was against the deal after blindsiding Downing Street with an extraordinary attack during an earlier Truth Social spree, where he posted an incendiary AI image showing him planting a US flag on Greenland. Another doctored picture showed European leaders, including Keir Starmer, in the Oval Office looking at a map where Greenland, Canada and Venezuela were all covered in the American flag. Mr Trump also leaked private texts sent to him by French President Emmanuel Macron and NATO’s Mark Rutte.
The explosive meltdown came as the US President was due to attend the glitzy World Economic Forum summit in Davos, Switzerland amid rapidly deteriorating transatlantic relations over his ambitions to take control of Greenland. At a briefing at the White House tonight, he gave a chilling hint of his intentions.
After a rambling speech to mark his first year in office, he was asked how far he would go to acquire the Arctic Island. He told the reporter: “You’ll find out.”
READ MORE: Politician tells Donald Trump to ‘f**k off’ in blistering Greenland response
Mr Trump said he thought the people of Greenland would be “thrilled” to be part of the US. Confronted over opposition on the Arctic island to being part of America, he said: “When I speak to them, I’m sure they’ll be thrilled.”
Despite his attacks, the US President said he liked Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron but accused them of being “a little bit rough when I’m not around”.
He said he had not spoken to either leader since his Truth Social attacks, but said: “I think I get along very well with them. I mean, they always treat me well. They get a little bit rough when I’m not around, but when I’m around they treat me very nicely. You know. I like both of them; they’re both liberal. They’ve got to straighten out their countries though.”
He said he was against the Chagos Islands deal, despite previously supporting it. He added: “I think they should keep it. I don’t know why they’re doing (it), do they need money?”
Ahead of the trip, European leaders branded him a bully and compared him to the “Very Hungry Caterpillar”, a children’s book about a greedy insect that eats until it gets a stomach ache. Tensions boiled over at the weekend when Mr Trump threatened to impose eye-watering tariffs on goods sent to the US by eight NATO allies, including the UK, unless he gets a deal to take over Greenland.
Mr Starmer has been battling to de-escalate the situation but his efforts were torpedoed by Mr Trump’s bombshell attack on the UK’s decision to cede sovereignty of the remote Chagos islands to Mauritius – a move America has previously endorsed.
The US President posted on his Truth Social platform: “Shockingly, our ‘brilliant’ NATO Ally, the United Kingdom, is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital U.S. Military Base, to Mauritius, and to do so FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER. “There is no doubt that China and Russia have noticed this act of total weakness.”
He added: “The UK giving away extremely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY, and is another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired.”
Downing Street said it would press ahead with the £3.4billion deal, saying it had acted to protect the future of a crucial US-UK military base on Diego Garcia in the remote Indian Ocean territory. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “Our position hasn’t changed on Diego Garcia or the treaty that has been signed. The US supports the deal and the president explicitly recognised its strength last year.”
One of the PM’s allies, Cabinet Minister Pat McFadden said he believed the President’s outburst was about Greenland, not the Chagos deal. He said: “I think what we saw last night was a series of posts criticising a number of world leaders. That may tell us that the President is frustrated right now. I don’t really believe this is about Chagos, I think it’s about Greenland, and the best way to resolve that is through dialogue with the Danish government, and that’s what we’ve said all along.”
But the row poses a major headache for Mr Starmer, who is trying to prevent Mr Trump from starting a trade war and destroying the Nato defensive alliance by seizing Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark. Mr Trump has refused to rule out seizing the Arctic island by force, and Greenland’s PM Jens-Frederik Nielsen warned the public needs to prepare for the threat of an invasion.
Emily Thornberry, chair of the Commons’ foreign affairs committee, said the UK must stick to the PM’s strategy of trying to defuse the crisis. Pointing to his Chagos Islands rant, she said: “This is an example of presidential trolling. We’ve always said, haven’t we, that we don’t take him literally, but we need to take him seriously.
“It was only a few months ago, in fact I have in front of me a press release from May 22 from Marco Rubio, where he said the US welcomed this historic agreement… So who knows? The Americans are in favour of the deal on Diego Garcia, which indeed is what they said to me when I was in Washington last year. But tonight, we get more trolling from President Trump saying the opposite. But in a week’s time, who knows what he will say next?”
Mr Trump joked at a White House briefing that he expected a frosty reception in Switzerland shortly after going on another rant about Nato would be “on the ash heap of history” without his influence. “I’m going to this beautiful place in Switzerland where I’m sure I’ll be very happily awaited for,” he told reporters.
French President Emmanuel Macron took a swipe at the US President, saying: “We do prefer respect to bullies. And we do prefer rule of law to brutality.” Belgian PM Bart De Wever said: “My feeling is that the sweet-talking is over… You reach the point where sweet-talking and sweet-talking is counterproductive. It only encourages them to go a step further; it’s the Very Hungry Caterpillar.”
Polish PM Donald Tusk also said: “Appeasement is always a sign of weakness. Europe cannot afford to be weak – neither against its enemies, nor ally.”
