President Donald Trump has urged Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to “straighten out” the UK as tensions between the two leaders escalate over Greenland and the Chagos Islands deal.
Speaking to reporters, Trump suggested that Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were two-faced, saying, “[They] treat me well. They get a little bit rough when … I’m not around, but when I’m around, they treat me very nicely.”
The U.S. president said he would snub an emergency meeting of the G7 that Macron had proposed could take place in Paris, suggesting his French counterpart would not be around “much longer.”
“Emmanuel is not going to be there very long. And you know, there’s no longevity there. He’s a friend of mine. He’s a nice guy. I like Macron, but, but he’s not, he’s not going to be there very much longer,” Trump said.
Trump was due to depart for the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday night, hours after renewing his threat to take Greenland and criticizing Starmer’s deal to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius as “an act of stupidity.”
When asked about his relationship with the Prime Minister, Trump said, “They’ve [Starmer and Macron] got to straighten out their countries. London is having a lot of problems.”
European leaders hit back at Trump, warn against bullying and call for appeasement to end
Earlier on Tuesday, European leaders hit back at Trump, warning against bullying on the world stage and calling for appeasement of the U.S. president to end.
Macron led the response after Trump published a private text message from the French president, renewed his promise to annex Greenland, and attacked Starmer’s deal to give away the Chagos Islands.
In a thinly veiled swipe at Trump at Davos, Macron said, “We do prefer respect to bullies. And we do prefer rule of law to brutality.” The French president warned that “imperial ambitions” were resurfacing among major powers.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk suggested Europe must take a harder line with Trump, saying, “Europe cannot afford to be weak, neither against its enemies, nor ally. Appeasement means no results, only humiliation. European assertiveness and self-confidence have become the need of the moment.”
Europe divided and without concrete plan ahead of Trump’s Davos arrival
Despite the rhetoric, Europe appeared divided and without a concrete plan ahead of Trump’s expected arrival at the Swiss summit on Wednesday, where he is due to hold talks with the head of Nato.
Trump insists the U.S. must own the mineral-rich island of Greenland to counter Russian and Chinese influence in the Arctic, writing on social media, “I agreed to a meeting of the various parties in Davos, Switzerland. As I expressed to everyone, very plainly, Greenland is imperative for national and world security. There can be no going back – on that, everyone agrees!”
In a call with the president of the European Council, Starmer said Britain was prepared to “play its part to protect Arctic security alongside Nato,” according to Downing Street.
Danish officials were invited to the World Economic Forum but will not attend amid the intense focus on Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of their kingdom.
On Tuesday, Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen ordered the population to start preparing for a possible American military invasion, stressing that while such a scenario was unlikely, “it can’t be ruled out.”