Trump appeals for UK to ship ships to Strait of Hormuz to assist unlock it… after Britain lastly managed to deploy HMS Dragon on Tuesday

Donald Trump has asked for Britain’s help to save the Strait of Hormuz from closure, as he also calls for other foreign leaders to send ships to the strategic passage. 

The US President also asked for help from France, Japan, South Korea and China, a country which has long been considered his country’s geopolitical rival. 

Trump’s new post on Truth Social suggests Iran has been successful in bringing the strategic water passage to a close. 

In recent days, Tehran has launched several missile strikes on vessels passing through the Strait, as well as sending its own explosive-laden ships, amid threats to send the price of oil to $200 per barrel. 

‘Many countries, especially those who are affected by Iran’s attempted closure of the Hormuz Strait, will be sending warships in conjunction with the United States of America, to keep the Strait open and safe,’ Trump wrote. 

‘We have already destroyed 100% of Iran’s military capability, but it’s easy for them to send a drone or two, drop a mine, or deliver a close-range missile somewhere along, or in, this Waterway, no matter how badly defeated they are.’ 

Trump went on to call on several states that ‘are affected by this artificial constraint’, including the UK, to send vessels to Strait in a bid to help unblock one of the world’s most important shippin routes. 

‘In the meantime, the United States will be bombing the hell out of the shoreline, and continually shooting Iranian boats and ships out of the water,’ he said, later vowing to get the passage ‘open, safe and free’ ‘one way or another’.

Meanwhile, Britain’s HMS Dragon was only just deployed on Tuesday and has spent the last three days ‘bobbing around in the Channel’ after being sent to defend the nation’s forces from Iranian drone attacks in Cyprus. 

And the £1billion Type-45 destroyer only departed from UK waters yesterday, despite having been deployed several days earlier amid mounting criticism over Britain’s slow response to the conflict. 

After leaving the harbour, the warship switched off its transporter – a system which broadcasts a vessel’s position – meaning its movements could no longer be publicly monitored.  

HMS Dragon had also been scheduled to stop at Plymouth for a crew change, but those plans were reportedly abandoned as pressure mounted to get the vessel to the eastern Mediterranean.

And despite previous rebukes to the US-Israel’s attacks on Iran, Sir Keir Starmer ordered HMS Dragon’s departure after RAF Akrotiri, in Cyprus, was struck by an enemy drone on March 1. 

And while the Royal Navy vessel, which is heading to the Mediterranean Sea, is equipped with the country’s best air defence missiles and can launch several interceptor missiles at once, Sir Keir continues to be criticised for his slow response.

HMS Dragon should have been ready to sail at 72 hours’ notice. It was docked and undergoing wielding work before being thrust back into service by the Royal Navy. 

Navy sources have since insisted ‘they did six weeks’ work in six days’ to get her ready to sail to Cyprus, however, this explanation has done little to quieten critics.

Elsewhere, HMS Prince of Wales was recently upgraded to advanced readiness, amid the ongoing criticism of Britain’s military response to the conflict in the Middle East. 

This means the crew of the £3billion ship, currently undergoing repairs in Portsmouth, must be ready to sail with five days’ notice.

It comes after Donald Trump launched a scathing attack on the Prime Minister, saying: ‘This is not Winston Churchill we are dealing with.’

The US President delivered a withering verdict on the Prime Minister as he continued to fume at Sir Keir for failing to back US and Israeli strikes on Iran.

In comments that immediately plunged the so-called ‘special relationship’ into an unprecedented crisis, Mr Trump declared that he was ‘not happy’ with the PM and accused him of being ‘very, very uncooperative’.

Speaking in the White House, the US President hit out again at Sir Keir’s initial decision to block the US using British bases to launch attacks on Tehran.

In an apparent reference to Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands, the US President said: ‘That island… It’s taken three, four days for us to work out where we can land there.

‘It would have been much more convenient landing there as opposed to flying many extra hours, so we are very surprised.’

Referring to Britain’s war-time PM, a bust of whom sits in the Oval Office, Mr Trump added: ‘This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.’

The US President went on to criticise the UK’s approach to the ‘stupid island’ as he issued a fresh blast at Sir Keir’s bid to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

‘This is not the age of Churchill. I will say the UK has been very, very uncooperative with that stupid island that they have, that they gave away and took a 100-year lease,’ he told reporters in the Oval Office, as he sat alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

‘Having to do with, perhaps, indigenous people claiming the island that never even saw the island before. What’s that all about? They ruin relationships, it’s a shame.’

Iran retaliated by striking a major oil hub in the UAE, with plumes of black smoke seen billowing into the skies above the port of Fujairah following a drone attack today.

Former Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki, has also threatened to ‘capture’ US forces if they make an attempt to seize oil infrastructure in Kharg Island.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has also warned that US ‘hideouts’ in the UAE are ‘legitimate’ targets after Trump attacked the export terminal.

It comes after Donald Trump said last night that the US had ‘totally obliterated’ all military targets in ‘Iran’s crown jewel’, Kharg Island.

Today he appealed to countries including the UK to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz as he claimed Iran has been ‘totally obliterated’.