‘This is not Winston Churchill that we are dealing with’: Dоnɑld Tгuмρ savages 𝘒𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘳 again as PM is condemned for ‘weak’ response to Ir@n crisis
Dоnɑld Tгuмρ tonight launched an extraordinary attack on Sir 𝘒𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘳, 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 Isr@eli strikes on Ir@n.
In comments that immediately plunged the so-called ‘special relationship’ into an unprecedented crisis, Mr Tгuмρ 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 Tгuмρ 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.’
MrTгuмρ broadside leaves US-UK relations in a parlous state and is likely to provide further ammunition to the many critics who have accused Sir Keir of damaging Britain’s standing on the global stage.
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Dоnɑld Tгuмρ has launched a fresh attack on Sir 𝘒𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘳, saying: ‘This is not Winston Churchill we are dealing with’
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The US President issued his fresh blast at the Prime Minister while sitting in front of a Churchill bust in the Oval Office
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Mr Tгuмρ delivered a withering verdict on the Prime Minister as he continued to fume at Sir Keir for failing to back US and Isr@eli strikes on Ir@n
Mr Tгuмρ also repeated his frequent criticism of immigration and energy policies in the UK, saying: ‘I love that country, my mother was born there. But the UK, what they’re doing with energy and what they’re doing with immigration is horrible.’
He urged Sir Keir to ‘open up the North Sea’ and vented about ‘windmills all over the place that are ruining the country, ruining the landscapes, ruining the beautiful fields’.
In further comments, Mr Tгuмρ renewed his feud with London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan, who he branded ‘terrible’ and ‘incompetent’, and claimed there were Sharia courts in the UK.
He made the remarks as he spoke about the support from European nations for American action in Ir@n, with the US President saying Spain had been ‘terrible’.
Madrid has denied the US permission to use jointly operated military bases on its territory on Ir@n, with Spain’s socialist PM Pedro Sanchez having condemned ‘an unjustified, dangerous military intervention outside of international law’.
Mr Tгuмρ said the US was ‘cutting off all trade’ with Spain because of its criticism, adding: ‘We don’t want anything to do with Spain.’
But he praised ‘fantastic’ NATO chief Mark Rutte and Germany, saying: ‘Germany has been great, terrific.’
The transatlantic rift between the UK and US has been sparked by Sir Keir’s initial refusal to allow America to use British military bases in their action against Ir@n over the weekend.
The PM later performed a partial U-turn after Tehran fired retaliatory strikes across the Middle East, with drones and missiles being launched towards British military bases and UK allies in the region.
Late on Sunday, Sir Keir said he had agreed to an American request to use UK bases to protect British nationals and allies in the Middle East.
The PM said he was allowing British bases to be used only for the ‘specific and limited defensive purpose’ of targeting Ir@n’s missile storage depots and launchers.
Mr Tгuмρ has previously referred to asking to use the military base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, and RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, which can handle US heavy bombers.
As Ir@n was bombed for a fourth day, it was also revealed:
The US embassy in Saudi Arabia was attacked with drones as Americans in more than a dozen countries across the Middle East were urged to evacuate the region. Smoke is rising from US-run naval base in Bahrain as Ir@n claimed to have destroyed it;
Dоnɑld Tгuмρ has said the American military response is due to begin as US death toll hits six;
Mossad operatives hacked into Tehran’s traffic camera network to spy on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, his bodyguards and other top Ir@nian officials for years before his assassination on Saturday;
The Strait of Hormuz remains blocked, hitting global trade. Petrol stations in some parts of the UK appear to be running out of fuel as Brits scramble to fill up their vehicles as oil prices surge. Wholesale gas prices are up 93 per cent;
Ir@n has vowed to carpet bomb RAF bases on Cyprus after Britain allowed US access;
Earlier on Tuesday, in a newspaper interview, the US President said Sir Keir had ‘not been helpful’ and had put the special relationship in peril after failing to back his war with Ir@n.
Mr Tгuмρ said it was ‘very sad’ that relations between Britain and America are now ‘not like it used to be’.
Blaming Sir Keir directly, Mr Tгuмρ said: ‘He has not been helpful. I never thought I’d see that.
‘I never thought I’d see that from the UK. We love the UK. It’s very sad to see that the relationship is obviously not what it was.
‘This was the most solid relationship of all. And now we have very strong relationships with other countries in Europe.
‘It’s not going to matter, but (Sir Keir) should have helped… he should have. I mean, France has been great. They’ve all been great. The UK has been much different from others.’
He even suggested that the PM’s decision ‘could be’ because he is pandering to Muslim voters as the Labour leader was accused of ‘pearl-clutching’ over US attacks on Ir@n that wiped out Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Mr Tгuмρ said that he ‘loves’ the UK and its people but added it is ‘not such a recognisable country’ anymore.
‘Stop people from coming in from foreign lands who hate you,’ he told the PM.
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Earlier on Tuesday, the US President said Sir Keir had ‘not been helpful’ and had put the special relationship in peril after failing to back his war with Ir@n
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The Pentagon vented its fury at Sir Keir for his ‘pearl-clutching’ over the US attacks on Ir@n. The PM told the House of Commons on Monday that he stood by his decision
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A plume of smoke rises after an explosion in Tehran
The US President’s criticism of Sir Keir came as the death toll of US service personnel hit six and 18 service members had been seriously wounded.
Americans have been urged to leave 15 countries across the Middle East.
Ir@n has attacked the US embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with kamikaze drones. Ir@nian state media has claimed that a command and staff building at a US air base in Bahrain has also been destroyed.
President Tгuмρ has said a US military response to the American deaths – and damage to its embassy and Bahrain base – is imminent, warning the ‘hardest hits’ are coming.
Israel has also launched fresh strikes in Tehran and on Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, sending ground troops in on Tuesday morning.
‘It is reflected in decades of that special relationship, whether it is on national security, on trade or beyond.’
Senior Cabinet minister Darren Jones earlier said the US and Israel’s initial strikes in Ir@n did not ‘meet the test the PM has set out’, as he faced questions about the extent of British support for America’s course of action.
Mr Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, said the UK-US relationship was ‘important’ when asked on Tuesday morning whether it had changed in the way Mr Tгuмρ suggested.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘It has been for a long time and will continue to be, and we’re working in collaboration right now in the Middle East on defensive action to protect British citizens.
‘I think the president’s frustration, from the way he’s articulated it, has been that we were not involved in the initial American and Isr@eli strikes in Ir@n, but as the Prime Minister said to the House of Commons yesterday, we will only engage British armed forces when it’s in British interests, with a clear plan and on a legal basis.’
He told Sky News the US President’s words do not ‘negate the fact that we make decisions, as I say, on the basis of legality and British interest’.
In the Commons on Tuesday, Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty told MPs the UK’s relationship with the US is ‘strong’ and ‘will endure into the future on both the economic and the security fronts’.
Chris Philp, speaking for the Conservative Party, said the US action against Ir@n was ‘completely justified’ and that Sir Keir had ‘seriously undermined’ the special relationship by failing to back it right away.
‘Through his actions, 𝘒𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘳 has very seriously undermined our special relationship with the US, which has been the bedrock of our security for decades now,’ the shadow home secretary said.
Mr Jones told broadcasters the UK was not involved in the ‘first wave’ of strikes at the weekend because it ‘didn’t meet the test the Prime Minister’s set out’.
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An airstrike on an Ir@nian police centre also damaged residential buildings around it in Niloofar square in central Tehran on Sunday
Sir Keir told his Cabinet on Tuesday that the decision on Sunday to allow the US to use UK bases for defensive strikes was ‘lawful and in the national interest’.
The PM has seriously aggravated the White House by suggesting that US and Isr@eli strikes on Ir@n were illegal and set to unravel.
In an outspoken intervention, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth praised Israel for its central role in the offensive – but savaged the legalistic approach taken by Britain and other European allies.
‘Israel has clear missions for which we are grateful,’ he said. ‘Capable partners are good partners. Unlike so many of our traditional partners who wring their hands and clutch their pearls, humming and hawing about the use of force.’
Sir Keir made a partial U-turn on Sunday after Ir@n lashed out at civilian targets in Gulf states and RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, saying US jets would be able to fly from British bases for the ‘limited’ objective of destroying Ir@nian missile launchers and stockpiles.
He told MPs on Monday that an estimated 300,000 British nationals in the Gulf region were ‘at risk’ as Tehran targeted hotels and airports.
But he ruled out going further, saying he would not participate in US-led attempts to bring about ‘regime change from the skies’.
Mr Tгuмρ said the PM took ‘far too long’ to lift the ban on US forces flying from RAF Fairford and Diego Garcia.
The US President said he was ‘very disappointed in Keir’ over his attempts to hand sovereignty of the strategically vital Diego Garcia to Mauritius.
Sir Keir acknowledged that Mr Tгuмρ had ‘expressed his disagreement’, but insisted it was in Britain’s national interest to abide strictly by international law.
He told MPs repeatedly that any military action had to have a ‘lawful basis’ and a ‘viable thought-through plan’ – and suggested the US had neither.
Downing Street said the PM’s commitment to upholding international law was ‘iron-clad’.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch suggested that the PM was distancing himself from US actions on Ir@n to avoid further alienating Muslim voters and so-called ‘progressives’ who deserted Labour for the Greens in last week’s by-election.
She accused Sir Keir of trying to placate voters ‘whose political loyalties are swayed by conflicts in the Middle East, not the British national interest’.
‘It isn’t international law or principle,’ she said. ‘It’s pure, partisan, political calculations from a party that has surrendered its right to govern our country.’
She added: ‘Why is it that under this Prime Minister, international law always seems to be at odds with our national interest?’ The Tory leader said British people ‘will be wondering why our country’s response has been so weak’.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the PM’s dithering was ‘pathetic’, adding: ‘Our Prime Minister is not a leader, he’s a follower, and he looks weak in the eyes of everybody.’
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The PM marched against the Iraq War in 2003 and declared it illegal. He told MPs on Monday he was determined to prevent Britain being dragged into another legally questionable conflict in the Gulf.
‘We all remember the mistakes of Iraq, and we have learned those lessons,’ he said. ‘Any UK actions must always have a lawful basis and a viable, thought-through plan.
‘President Tгuмρ has expressed his disagreement with our decision not to join the initial strikes,’ he said.
‘But it is my duty to judge what is in Britain’s national interest, and that is the judgment I made. I stand by it.’
Former Tory security minister Tom Tugendhat, who served in the Iraq war, said there was ‘zero comparison’ with the current situation as there are no plans for a UK ground invasion, although Mr Tгuмρ later said he was prepared to put ‘boots on the ground’.
A legal opinion drawn up the PM’s controversial Attorney-General Lord Hermer ruled that the assault on Ir@n could not be deemed self-defence despite the regime’s long history of attacks on the West, including targets in the UK.
