{"id":418327,"date":"2026-01-20T08:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T08:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/418327\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T08:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T08:23:10","slug":"trump-says-uk-handing-over-chagos-islands-sovereignty-is-act-of-great-stupidity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/418327\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says UK handing over Chagos Islands sovereignty is act of &#8216;great stupidity&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/core\/website\/assets\/static\/news\/incident-types\/light-mode\/analysis.77b314ef10.svg\" alt=\"Analysis\" draggable=\"false\" class=\"ssrcss-to2z4d-ContributorImageComponent e2hr5uu0\"\/>Starmer&#8217;s relationship with Trump seems to be unravellingpublished at 08:12 GMT<\/p>\n<p>08:12 GMT<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-8kvzjk-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/b9eb2a7b-b156-46ad-b4fa-fb47dc1b0972.jpg.webp.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-11yxrdo-Image edrdn950\"\/>Chris Mason<br \/>Political editor<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The government is defending its deal over the Chagos Islands, following President Trump\u2019s splenetic outrage about it on social media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Senior sources are making it clear there were very good reasons for the deal \u2014 and point out that it was publicly welcomed by the United States and Australia \u2014 two countries alongside the UK that are part of what is known as the 5 Eyes intelligence alliance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The argument ministers have long made is that legal challenges over the validity of the UK\u2019s claim to the Chagos Islands threatened the viability of the crucial military base on Diego Garcia &#8211; a site prized by both the UK and the US. The deal they did, they say, secures the long term future of the base.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It is almost a year since the president\u2019s view on the deal was first sought in public. I remember it was \u2014 I was there, in the Oval Office of the White House.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The reporter pack suspected the president might be sceptical about it. But we were wrong. When we asked, he sounded supportive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A few months later, last May, when the deal was formally done, it was welcomed by the United States &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/live\/cp8yd7z4r24t?post=asset%3A5ac1f119-1aba-4870-ab41-57cfb085f0ac#post\" class=\"ssrcss-f6h2dj-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">as we reported here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But now we see this colossal change of heart \u2014 delivered in a characteristic blitz of capital letters. It poses massive questions for the prime minister, who has until now successfully nurtured a good relationship with the president, in public and private.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">First Greenland and now this &#8211; it all appears to be unravelling.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Trump's meeting with Starmer in the Oval Office in February - in which the president seemed to back the UK's Chagos Islands deal\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/55864635-a346-4277-a295-09ad5f08a654.jpg.webp.webp\"  width=\"1915\" height=\"1077\" class=\"ssrcss-11yxrdo-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, ReutersImage caption, <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Trump&#8217;s meeting with Starmer in the Oval Office in February &#8211; in which the president seemed to back the UK&#8217;s Chagos Islands deal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Starmer&#8217;s relationship with Trump seems to be unravellingpublished at 08:12 GMT 08:12 GMT Chris MasonPolitical editor The government&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-418327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}