{"id":510876,"date":"2026-04-03T14:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/510876\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T14:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:09:09","slug":"trump-claims-starmer-is-weak-as-he-mocks-pm-and-uk-aircraft-carriers-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/510876\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump claims Starmer is weak as he mocks PM and UK aircraft carriers | Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Footage has emerged of Donald Trump mocking Keir Starmer<\/a> by claiming the prime minister said he would have to consult his team before deciding whether to send UK aircraft carriers to the Middle East.<\/p>\n

In a new low for UK-US relations, Trump appeared to impersonate Starmer during an Easter lunch speech at the White House.<\/p>\n

\"TrumpTrump appears to mock Starmer and derides Britain\u2019s \u2018broken-down aircraft carriers\u2019<\/p>\n

The US president said the UK \u201cshould be our best\u201d ally but had not been during the Iran war, accusing Starmer of prevaricating over sending aircraft carriers.<\/p>\n

However, Whitehall sources said Trump had never asked the UK for the vessels and Britain had not offered them.<\/p>\n

During his speech, the president said: \u201cI asked [the] UK, who should be our best. In fact the king is coming over here in two weeks, he\u2019s a nice guy, King Charles.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut should be our best but they weren\u2019t our best. I said: \u2018You have two, old broken-down aircraft carriers, do you think you could send them over?\u2019<\/p>\n

The HMS Prince of Wales. Donald Trump appeared to deride Britain\u2019s two aircraft carriers. Photograph: Max Lye\/Royal Navy\/MoD Crown Copyright\/PA<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Ohhh, I\u2019ll have to ask my team.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI said: \u2018You\u2019re the prime minister, you don\u2019t have to.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018No, no, no, I have to ask my team. My team has to meet, we\u2019re meeting next week.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the war already started. Next week the war\u2019s going to be over \u2026 in three days.\u201d<\/p>\n

The remarks were made at a lunch that was not open to the press. It was released by the White House on a social media channel but later deleted. However, it was downloaded and republished by a politics reporter for the US website Business Insider.<\/p>\n

During the lunch, Trump also mocked Emmanuel Macron<\/a>, saying the French president was \u201cstill recovering from the right to the jaw\u201d and claimed that Macron\u2019s wife, Brigitte, \u201ctreats him extremely badly\u201d.<\/p>\n

Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron are greeted by the Sanae Takaichi during a visit to Tokyo on Wednesday. Photograph: Jeanne Accorsini\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Trump has repeatedly hit out at the UK over its decision not to authorise the use of military bases for the initial strikes on Iran, as well as the move to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.<\/p>\n

Starmer has not retaliated but said he would stick to his position on the war \u201cwhatever the pressure and the noise\u201d.<\/p>\n

When asked previously at parliament\u2019s liaison committee about the \u201cquite rude\u201d comments made by Trump about him, the prime minster said: \u201cI\u2019m utterly focused on what is in the best interests of our country and I am unapologetic about that.<\/p>\n

\u201cNotwithstanding the pressure that comes from elsewhere, I will remain laser focused on what is in the British national interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd a lot of what is said or done is undoubtedly said and done to put pressure on me, I have no doubt about that. I understand what is going on. But I am not going to be wavering on this.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI am the British prime minister and my job is to be absolutely focused on what is in the British national interest. That has served me well in recent weeks and that is the principle that I will continue to adhere to as we go forward taking difficult decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Footage has emerged of Donald Trump mocking Keir Starmer by claiming the prime minister said he would have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-510876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}