Donald Trump’s unhinged moments as he lashes out at Keir Starmer with stinging 8-word rebuke
Keir Starmer had his “Love Actually” moment with Donald Trump yesterday – and Trump is really, really upset about it. In fact, he’s attacked the Prime Minister in the most painfully British way possible
Trump lashed out at Keir Starmer in the most painfully British way possible(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Donald Trump has lashed out at Keir Starmer with a stinging 8-word rebuke – after the Prime Minister was hesitant to let the US use bases on British soil to launch assaults on Iran.
Keir Starmer’s Love Actually moment with Donald Trump is finally here. After a year and a bit of acting like Europe’s Trump whisperer, we finally found something up with which we will not put. And that sticking point was letting the US use bases on British soil to launch certain strikes against Iran. But some of them were fine with. As dramatic moments go, it was hardly stepping in to prevent Trump sexually harassing Martine McCutcheon only to enter into an almost equally inappropriate power-imbalanced workplace dalliance with her himself.But still, one for the history books.
Meanwhile, in Trumpworld
- Trump is NOT happy with Starmer
- Republicans did NOT think the Clinton depositions through
- Trump did NOT think this Iran thing through
- Trump wangs on about his drapes
Here’s what you need to know
1. Trump is NOT happy with Keir Starmer
Donald Trump is extremely displeased with Keir Starmer – branding him “not Winston Churchill” in a particularly grumpy Oval Office Q&A.
He was asked about his talks with European allies over his assaults on Iran and while Spain was highest on Trump’s naughty list, the UK is a close second.
Spain, he said, had flatly refused to let him use bases on Spanish soil to launch attacks – and as a result, Trump said he had ordered Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant to “cut off all trade” with Spain.
Then he turned to Starmer: “I’m not happy with the UK either. That island that you heard about, the lease, for whatever reason he made a lease for the Island, someone came and took it away from them. And it’s taken 3-4 days to work out where we can land, it would have been much more convenient landing there as opposed to flying many extra hours. This is not Winston Churchill we’re dealing with.”
All of this is a result of Starmer not cosying up to Trump quite as much as he’s grown accustomed to following his mad war on Iran.
Starmer initially blocked American planes from using British bases for the attacks – though he later agreed to let the United States use bases in England and on Diego Garcia to strike Iran’s ballistic missiles and their storage sites, but not to hit other targets.
Even after the British base at Akrotiri in Cyprus was hit by an Iran-made drone over the weekend, Starmer said that the United Kingdom “will not join offensive action.”
The British leader also offered a rare, if polite, rebuke of Trump, saying the UK government doesn’t believe in “regime change from the skies.”
Trump, as you might imagine, has not taken this at all well, telling the Sun’s Harry Cole: “This was the most solid relationship of all. And now we have very strong relationships with other countries in Europe. I mean, France has been great. They’ve all been great. The UK has been much different from others.”
He added: “It’s very sad to see that the relationship is obviously not what it was.”
Trump went on to run his usual attacks on Britain, complaining that we sometimes build windmills (occasionally near his golf courses), and sometimes don’t burn all the fossil fuels we have available to us, and that he doesn’t like Sadiq Khan, and that London is being ruined by immigrants. If Trump phoned into LBC they’d put him directly through to James O’Brien.
And then, after a bit of coaxing from Harry, Trump agreed that yes, maybe Starmer is trying to pander to Muslims with his reluctance to join a mad, probably illegal war. Which is fairly preposterous, given it’s Keir Starmer we’re talking about, and he needs absolutely no ulterior motives to be an international law bore.
2. Republicans did NOT think the Clinton depositions through
Whichever Republican thought getting the Clintons to testify about Epstein would be a bad look for the former President and Secretary of State, and for Democrats broadly, did not think it through.
See, this is not their first rodeo. It’s hard to imagine a couple in the whole of America who have been subpoenaed more and sat through as many politically motivated depositions as Hillary and Bill Clinton.
And anyone who sat through the 9 hours of footage from the evidence sessions, published last night, will have seen the Republicans bring a pushbike to a drag race.
We all heard about the incident where MAGA Republican Laura Bohbert snapped a photo of Hillary giving evidence and sent it to pro-Trump blogger Benny Johnson, and that Hillary was fuming when it was revealed the pic had been tweeted.
But nobody was prepared for the iconic way Clinton responded to it in the moment. Genuinely the most likeable thing Hillary Clinton has done in years.
Meanwhile, husband Bill’s testimony wasn’t quite as dramatic, but was still very interesting. He described his relationship with Epstein as “cordial” and “friendly”, but denied they were close. He described a transactional relationship with the financier, who the world would later learn was a sex trafficker and prolific paedophile – where he would use Epstein’s plane to travel around in support of his AIDS foundation, in return for which he’d listen to Epstein bang on about politics and economics during the journeys. After a while, the relationship ended, he said, not because they fell out, but because Clinton found donors more interested in the cause to hang out with.
There was also this tantalising exchange about Trump describing what really prompted the end of his and Epstein’s friendship at the golf course in the early 00s.
“We had some great times together over the years, but we fell out all because of a real estate deal,” he said Trump had told him. “I’m sorry it happened.”
It’s unclear when Trump changed his tune to claiming he fell out with Epstein because he was a “creep”, but that tune has definitely changed.
3. Trump did NOT think this Iran thing through
Back to Iran, where everything is going entirely to plan. By which I mean nobody knows what is going on, because there’s no plan.
Trump appears to have spent time on the phone with more than a dozen reporters in the last few days, as he desperately tries to spin it into something other than “we went in because Israel told us they were going to”, which is the refreshingly honest way Marco Rubio explained it last night.
Trump’s seemingly endless availability to random Washington reporters hit peak absurdity when he called one guy to list his three favourite candidates to take over the government of Iran, only to call another reporter a little later and tell them that all three had been killed in the strikes.
Meanwhile, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gave a press conference where he insisted this wasn’t a “forever war”, but then refused to give a timescale for when the operation will finish. Very much channelling the impression done of him by SNL’s Colin Jost, Hegseth insisted Operation Epic Fury was being fought without America’s “traditional allies who wring their hands and clutch their pearls hemming and hawing about the use of force”.
There would be “no stupid rules of engagement, no nation building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise, no politically correct wars”.
What there might be, however, is a trip to The Hague, if he keeps talking like that…
4. Trump wangs on about his drapes at press conference announcing US troop deaths
During a press conference during which he announced the deaths of US personnel during the assault on Iran, Trump spent a really long time talking about his new drapes, then walked off, ignoring questions from reporters.
“See that nice drape?” He droned on to those present “…In about 1.5 years you’re gonna see a very very beautiful building…I picked those drapes. I always liked gold. I believe it will be the most beautiful ballroom anywhere in the world.”
5. He also had this unpleasant malfunction
“Finally, we honour one more soldier,” he said, introducing a recipient of the medal of honour.
“A fallen warria of world. Of wars. And really, and really terra.”
6. Meanwhile, for some reason, Melania Trump presided over a meeting of the United Nations
For reasons yet to be adequately explained to me, Melania Trump chaired a meeting about Educational Opportunities at the United Nations. No other news of note came from the event. It was just weird.
7. Also, happy Super Tuesday
Today marks the start of Midterm season, with Republican and Democrat primaries taking place in Texas, North Carolina and Arkansas.
Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn is trying to hold on for a fifth term in Tuesday’s GOP primary, while Democrats will choose whether to send Rep. Jasmine Crockett or state Rep. James Talarico to a November general election where the party once again hopes it has a chance.
Cornyn faces a challenge from MAGA favorite Ken Paxton, the state’s attorney general, and Rep. Wesley Hunt in a contest that’s expected to advance to a May runoff between the top two vote-getters. The three Republicans have campaigned on their ties to Trump, who has not endorsed in the race.
