President Trump is reversing course and back to taking swipes at a UK plan to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, while still leasing a key military base there. "DO NOT GIVE AWAY DIEGO GARCIA!" Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday of the largest island in the archipelago, calling the plan for a 99-year lease a "big mistake" and warning that the land "should not be taken away from the U.K." His comments clash with his own State Department, which just backed London's agreement with Mauritius, per the BBC.
The UK Foreign Office says the deal is essential to safeguard the joint UK-US base, describing it as critical to national and allied security. Prime Minister Keir Starmer argues that the arrangement is the only way to keep Diego Garcia operating long term amid ongoing Mauritian sovereignty claims. Trump has repeatedly shifted his stance on the handover: The Guardian notes that in January, the president called the prospect of the UK giving up the islands an "act of great stupidity," though earlier this month he said Starmer's deal was "the best he could make."
Trump is now framing the island as vital for potential action against Iran, folding the dispute into his broader rhetoric on "wokeism." In response to her boss' most recent comments, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said his social media post "should be taken as the policy of the Trump administration. It's coming straight from the horse's mouth."
The row is also playing out across the pond. Conservatives from the Reform UK party say Starmer is endangering ties with Washington, while the Liberal Democrats cite Trump's reversals as proof the UK should lean more on Europe, per the BBC. Meanwhile, protesters who originally hail from the Chagos Archipelago recently landed on the islands to oppose the deal, refusing to leave even under threat of eviction.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
