Trump slams Britain’s Chagos Islands handover, citing it as reason for Greenland ambitions

US president Donald Trump says the UK’s plan to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius is an “an act of GREAT STUPIDITY”, the BBC writes.

Trump says the deal – in which the UK would lease a military base on the territory, while handing over sovereignty – is one of the reasons he wants the US to take over Greenland

“Shockingly, our ‘brilliant’ NATO Ally, the United Kingdom, is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital U.S. Military Base, to Mauritius, and to do so FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER,” Trump writes.

It is noted that the UK is transferring the Chagos Islands to Mauritius following decades of legal and diplomatic pressure dating back to the 1960s. The agreement was signed in May 2025. Under the deal, Mauritius gains sovereignty over the entire archipelago, while the UK and the United States will continue to operate the military base on Diego Garcia under a lease of at least 99 years.

The Trump administration has previously backed the deal – in May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it a “monumental achievement.”

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said the 99-year lease on the UK-US military base, after sovereignty is handed over, will cost the UK £101m a year.