Trump Slams Starmer's Chagos Deal Day After US Approved It
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- Trump publicly rebuked Starmer's Chagos Islands deal on Truth Social, calling it "a big mistake" and writing "DO NOT GIVE AWAY DIEGO GARCIA" — one day after the US State Department formally backed the agreement.
- Trump warned the Diego Garcia base may be needed to "eradicate a potential attack" from Iran if Tehran refuses a nuclear deal, also citing the UK's Fairford airfield as a potential launch site.
- The UK-Mauritius deal transfers sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago while preserving a 99-year lease of Diego Garcia at roughly £100 million ($135 million) per year, with an option to extend.
- The US State Department announced it supports the deal and scheduled US-Mauritius talks for next week — putting the Trump administration's official position directly at odds with the president's personal stance.
- The UK Foreign Office defended the deal as "the only way to guarantee the long-term future of this vital military base," arguing binding 2019 International Court of Justice rulings left the UK with no alternative.
- Diego Garcia has hosted US-UK strikes on Yemen's Houthis in 2024-2025 and on the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in 2001; up to 2,000 Chagossians were forcibly removed from the archipelago in the 1960s-70s.
Why it matters: The 24-hour contradiction between Trump's public post and the State Department's formal backing exposes open friction inside the US government on a deal the UK considers legally binding under ICJ rulings. For Starmer, the base's long-term future now depends on a White House stance that shifted from opposition to approval to public attack within months — and for Mauritius, the newly announced US-Mauritius talks next week add a separate US channel that could reshape terms.
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