After threatening France with a 200 per cent tariff on wines and champagnes, US President Donald Trump lashed out at the United Kingdom over the Chagos Islands.
Calling the United Kingdom’s plan to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius “an act of great stupidity,” Trump has publicly distanced himself from a deal that he and his administration had earlier explicitly endorsed.
The remarks come at a time when Trump has been projecting an aggressively assertive foreign policy posture, most visibly through his repeated threats to wrench Greenland from Denmark in the name of US national security. Seen in that broader context, his criticism of the Chagos agreement appears less about legal or moral objections and more about raw strategic control of critical geographies.
This makes Trump’s volte-face particularly striking. When British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on 22 May 2025 that the UK had finalised the Chagos deal with Mauritius, he went out of his way to emphasise US backing. Starmer stated that President Trump had welcomed the agreement, along with other allies, precisely because of the “strategic importance” of the Diego Garcia military base and the need to prevent adversarial powers from filling any vacuum in the Indian Ocean.
That position was reinforced by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who issued an official statement praising the agreement as a diplomatic milestone. Rubio said Trump had “expressed his support for this monumental achievement” and described the deal as reflective of the “enduring strength of the US–UK relationship.” He further underlined Washington’s readiness to continue close collaboration with London to promote “peace, security, and prosperity in the Indian Ocean and beyond.”
The US endorsement was not incidental. It followed Starmer’s February visit to the Oval Office, during which Trump himself publicly signalled approval of the arrangement.
Speaking at the time, Trump highlighted the long-term nature of the proposed lease for Diego Garcia, describing it as a “very strong lease”, lasting around 140 years. “That’s a long time,” Trump said then, adding that the US would be inclined to go along with the UK’s plan.
Under the framework of the agreement, the UK is expected to lease Diego Garcia to maintain the joint US–UK military base for 99 years, with an option to extend the lease by a further 40 years. For London and Washington alike, the arrangement was presented as a way to reconcile international legal pressures with hard security interests, ensuring an uninterrupted Western military presence at one of the world’s most strategically located bases.
