Donald Trump has dismissed British warships as “toys” in his latest jibe at Nato countries for their lack of involvement in the joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran. Speaking at the White House on Thursday, he claimed he had told the UK: “Don’t bother, we don’t need it.”
Trump has previously alleged that he requested two aircraft carriers from the UK that Keir Starmer had initially rejected and then offered to send. No 10 has denied that a request was made or denied.
The prime minister has said he would not permit UK bases to be used for offensive strikes against the Iranian regime, but bases including Diego Garcia on the Chagos Islands can be used for defensive strikes to combat Iran’s retaliation.
The UK has sent the warship HMS Dragon to the eastern Mediterranean after an Iranian-made missile was launched from Lebanon at the UK’s RAF base in Cyprus.
Officials are also understood to be considering deploying a Royal Navy vessel or civilian ship as part of efforts to reopen the strait of Hormuz, where the closure of the Gulf route is having a devastating effect on global energy movements. The vessel would act as a mothership for mine-clearing drones to make the strait safer for commercial shipping.
Trump also reacted derisively to the launch of an Iranian missile towards the US-UK base on Diego Garcia, part of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, which the UK has agreed to hand over to Mauritius with a long-lease deal. Trump has recently been highly critical of that deal.
The US president said Iran had fired “one missile 2,500 miles – they supposedly didn’t have a missile like that. But they shot the now famous island that the UK was very afraid to give us because they didn’t want to get dragged in, but we don’t want to get dragged into their wars either.”
Trump said he was “very disappointed” with Nato allies. He said: “Actually made a statement, a couple of them, that ‘we want to get involved when the war is over’. No, it’s supposed to get involved with the war’s beginning, or even before it begins.
“We had the UK say – this is three weeks ago – ‘we’ll send our aircraft carriers’, which aren’t the best aircraft carriers, by the way. They’re toys compared to what we have. But ‘we’ll send our aircraft carrier when the war is over’. I said: ‘Oh that’s wonderful, thank you very much. Don’t bother. We don’t need it.’
“Now they all want to help. When they’re annihilated, the other side is annihilated, they said ‘we’d love to send ships’.”
Earlier this week, Starmer told a committee of MPs he did not intend to react to the US president’s repeated insults, marking a significant deterioration of their relationship since Trump’s second state visit in September.
He told the liaison committee that these comments had been made “to put pressure on me” and that he had been refusing to respond directly because he was “unapologetic” about remaining “utterly focused” on his job.
Trump has repeatedly framed Starmer as weak for not giving the US more support over its war with Iran – though the prime minister’s position is popular with the British public. He has said that Starmer is “not exactly [Winston] Churchill” and questioned publicly why he needed to consult his ministers or take advice when it came to military decisions.
Meanwhile, Starmer travelled to Finland on Thursday for the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) leaders’ summit.
Speaking at the presidential palace in Helsinki, the prime minister warned that Britain and its allies must not forget about the threat posed by Russia amid the war in the Middle East.
He claimed the west was facing a “war on two fronts” – Ukraine and Iran – as he met the other leaders from the JEF, adding: “The threat from Russia in the north and east has not gone away. In fact, in my view, that threat has grown.”
He confirmed the Ukrainian navy would join a JEF exercise for the first time in the autumn and praised Kyiv’s “unparalleled” capabilities in countering drone warfare.
The JEF, a military coalition of 10 northern European countries led by the UK, aims to defend against Russian incursions. It also includes Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
