US President Donald Trump isn’t shy about expressing who should run other countries. And it appears he’s had enough of Sir Keir Starmer. Mr Trump sent armed forces to capture Nicolás Maduro, the President of Venezuela, leaving Vice President Delcy Gómez in charge. And now he wants to decide who runs Iran, following the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Mr Trump told journalists this week, “I have to be involved in the appointment.”
But there’s another country where Mr Trump would like to see regime change, albeit more peacefully – the UK.
He’s had a love/hate relationship with our Prime Minister for numerous months. Mr Trump was satisfied with his state visit to the UK last year, but that didn’t stop him from criticising the UK over matters such as immigration and energy policy. It’s all come to a head after the UK initially refused to allow the US to use our air bases during the attack on Iran.
Mr Trump raged that Britain’s response has been “very disappointing” and insisted the US should be allowing America to use its bases “without question or hesitation”. The President said he was “not happy with the UK” and, in a personal attack on the Prime Minister, added: “This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.”
But there is one British politician with whom Mr Trump remains friendly.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was set to speak with the President at a dinner in Florida.
Top of the agenda will be the UK’s plan to hand over the Chagos Islands, including a key military base on the island of Diego Garcia, to Mauritius – a plan the US seemed initially to support but has now turned against. However, Mr Trump’s position is inconsistent.
Attending a ‘Save Chagos Boat Party’ organised by website Guido Fawkes, Mr Farage said on Thursday: “We think this is the central plan for this government’s foreign policy and we are beating them back.
President Trump has almost understood the deal, but I will be dining at Mar-a-Lago tomorrow night, and we will reinforce the message.”
It’s a bitter blow to Sir Keir, after the Iran situation became the latest disaster to befall his Government.
There’s plenty of debate to be had about whether the UK should have offered the US more support from the start. They are meant to be our allies, after all – but numerous British people probably feel we shouldn’t get entangled in another Middle East war.
Our political system has nothing to do with Mr Orange. Even if we disagree with the person chosen by the majority to lead the UK, it is still the people’s decision to make.
The gist of it is, the US wants its allies to join an ill-thought-out war of choice with unclear aims and an uncertain prospect of success, with no exit plan.
They want everybody else to absorb all the fallout in terms of refugees, disruption to shipping, higher oil and commodity prices and possibly even incoming missiles, and then they’ll even want to tax everyone at 15 per cent. With friends like the US under Trump, who needs enemies?
The UK should be keeping out of it, and Trump can have Farage because Britain demonstrably doesn’t want him as Prime Minister. It’s the people’s vote that counts, not the opinion of an ageing narcissist.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 