President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized the United Kingdom’s decision to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, calling the move an act of “great stupidity” and linking it to his ongoing push for the United States to acquire Greenland.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump expressed concern over the future of the U.S.-U.K. military base on Diego Garcia, a key installation in the Indian Ocean. “Shockingly, our ‘brilliant’ NATO Ally, the United Kingdom, is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia… FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER,” he wrote. He warned that adversaries such as China and Russia could exploit what he described as a show of weakness by the U.K.
He added that this development reinforced his argument for pursuing Greenland: “The UK giving away extremely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY, and is another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired.”
Trump’s comments came as U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, visited the U.K. Johnson addressed the British Parliament and emphasized sustained cooperation between the two countries, saying, “We have always been able to work through our differences calmly as friends. We will continue to do that.”
The Chagos Archipelago was separated from Mauritius by the British government in 1965. The U.K. paid about $4 million for the islands, according to the BBC. Mauritius has argued the separation was coerced and a condition for its independence in 1968.
The U.K. invited the U.S. to build a military base on Diego Garcia, which remains a strategic hub for American operations in the Indian Ocean.
In 2019, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a non-binding ruling stating that the U.K. should relinquish control of the islands, citing the removal of Chagossians from Diego Garcia as unlawful.
In 2024, the U.K. and Mauritius reached an agreement for Britain to transfer sovereignty of the islands while retaining control of the Diego Garcia base through a 99-year lease. The arrangement costs the U.K. about $136 million annually.
At the time, the Trump administration had supported the deal. Then–Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in May 2023 that a review determined the agreement would preserve long-term stability and effective operation of the base.
Rubio also stated that Trump had endorsed the agreement during a meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, calling the base “a critical asset for regional and global security.”
A U.K. government spokesperson on Tuesday said the agreement would not compromise security and responded to criticism by emphasizing the importance of maintaining the base’s operational capacity. The deal, the spokesperson said, was struck in response to legal decisions that had put the base’s future in question.
“This deal secures the operations of the joint U.S.–U.K. base on Diego Garcia for generations,” the statement read. The spokesperson added that the agreement had been welcomed by the United States, Australia, and other Five Eyes intelligence allies, along with countries including India, Japan, and South Korea.
The Five Eyes is an intelligence-sharing alliance between the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
