‘I’m not happy with Britain’: Donald Trump criticizes Keir Starmer over military access

president Donald Trump stepped up his criticism on Tuesday british prime minister Keir Starmer initially refused to allow US warplanes to use British bases to attack Iran, saying “we are not dealing with Winston Churchill”.Trump said the historic relationship between the United States and Britain was “not what it used to be” amid a diplomatic spat over the US-Israeli attack on Iran. “Britain has been very, very uncooperative,” he said, sitting next to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House. “I’m not happy with Britain,” he said. “It took us three or four days to figure out where we could land.”Starmer told parliament on Monday that his government “doesn’t believe in regime change from the sky” and initially refused to play any role in Washington’s war with Iran, a move that drew Trump’s ire. Starmer later agreed to a US request to use two British military bases for “specific and limited defense purposes”.The incident angered Trump, who earlier told British daily The Sun: “This is the strongest relationship of all. Now we have very strong relationships with the rest of Europe,” singling out France and Germany.Starmer has developed a friendly relationship with Trump, who made an unprecedented second state visit to the UK last year. The so-called special relationship between the World War II allies was largely based on long-term defense cooperation and intelligence sharing.However, any potential military action in the Middle East is politically sensitive in the UK following former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s disastrous support for the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.Trump’s comments to The Sun came after Starmer announced on Tuesday that he would send helicopters with counter-drone capabilities and the Royal Navy Dragon warship to bolster Cyprus’ defenses as part of his “defensive operations”. The move comes after a British Royal Air Force base on the eastern Mediterranean island was attacked by Iranian-made drones early Monday, one of which crashed into a runway, officials said.“The UK is fully committed to the security of Cyprus and British military personnel based there,” Starmer said on X. “We will always act in the interests of the UK and our allies,” he added.Trump told The Sun that Starmer had “provided no help”, adding: “I never thought I would see this. I never thought I would see something like this in the UK. We love Britain. “It’s just a very different relationship… and I’m very sad to see that this relationship is obviously not what it was,” he said.Government minister Darren Jones defended Starmer’s decision to only engage in military action if there was a “legal basis” and a “clear plan” in Britain’s own national interests. “That’s why we were not involved in the initial attack on Iran,” he said. He said two British bases, one in Gloucestershire in western England and an Anglo-American base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, were now approved for American use.“We all remember the mistakes of Iraq and we have learned from them,” Starmer told parliament on Monday. He stressed that the Akrotiri base in Cyprus “is not used by American bombers.”Asked about Trump’s criticism, Starmer’s spokesman said Britain and the United States remained staunch allies. “This is reflected in decades of special relationships, whether in national security, trade or other areas,” the spokesman said.British politicians have been troubled by the 2003 Iraq war, which reportedly left 179 British soldiers dead. An official British inquiry into the conflict later found that Blair had relied on flawed intelligence in his decision to enter the war.Evie Aspinall, director of the British Foreign Policy Group think tank, told AFP that Starmer faced a “very tight diplomatic tightrope” with the United States, which “remains crucial in the context of Ukraine and Greenland”.