UK not obliged to support every demand of ‘transactional’ US president, minister says

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/mar/16/uk-not-obliged-to-support-every-transactional-demand-trump-us-minister-says

37 Comments

  1. Pitiful-MobileGamer on

    Spot on. The billions in commitment will be completely forgotten in the next trade spat

  2. UsedNegotiation8227 on

    I thought I heard you cuks are sending a mine sweeping ship to help out orange man?

    Edit: mine sweeping *drones*

  3. Trump was crystal clear that he does not want or need our help. We are happy to respect his boundaries in this instance.

  4. I am emphatically against supporting Trump in his idiotic and misguided foreign ventures. Aside from the bad politics of it all the man is a complete and utter cunt who doesn’t deserve any support. He will throw a tantrum, we shouldn’t care. All he deserves is impeachment, a process which the American political system doesn’t apparently deem necessary, probably because the sex offender in chief enjoys a lot of support. 

    I think Trump needs reminding of his own words, namely that he didn’t need support, that Nato troops stayed a little behind the front and we can throw in his own draft dodging habits for good measure. 

    If he really does finally understand that the US is out of its depth then he needs to activate Article 5 (again). The United States is the only country that has ever utilised said article so they should know how to do so pretty well.

  5. The United Kingdom, our once Great Ally, maybe the Greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday. “That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer – But we will remember.
    “We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”
    Speaking on Air Force One in response to a question about the use of UK bases in the war, Trump referred to his post on Truth Social, saying: “We don’t need them,” appearing to reference the carriers.

  6. Few-Establishment277 on

    Pat McFadden, by the way. The thumbnail seems to imply this is Starmer saying this

  7. Transactional isn’t really right, prostitution is transactional, Trump is more like rape.

  8. Sweet-Competition-15 on

    It’s enduring, and I think it will outlast all the personalities involved.”

    Not all countries (🇨🇦) feel that way.

  9. 313378008135 on

    Can’t help but feel that hes going to try to invoke art 5 and say this whole thing was defensive. And when everyone disagrees and does not respond he can say “see, NATO is one sided – we need to end it” (for his domestic audience).

    Either way – you know you made a blunder as an American leader if even good old Britain won’t send a ship or two to help you in a scrap. 

    Who woukd have thought waging economic war on allies, belittling allies contributions to conflicts and using every extortion threat against allies who disobey – while cozying up to the bad guys – would actually be a problem?

  10. Why would any country be willing to become a party to a “terrorist act” which might lead to possible “genocide”?
    Remember what Trump said, “We will continue bombing them just for the fun of it”.

  11. Gentle_Snail on

    >Donald Trump is a “very transactional” president, whose repeated demands on Iran must be seen in this context, one of Keir Starmer’s most senior ministers has said in an unusually blunt UK assessment of relations between the countries.

    *said in a very accurate assessment of relations*

  12. SubjectAfraid on

    The 🇺🇸 “worldwide bully” is now being bullied back, and is desperately asking for help. 😎 Guess what happens to people like that? 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣

  13. Why is Trump not asking his actual ally for help here? You know, the one where he only has praises for? Russia?

  14. Trump is not a trustworthy person. He continues to prove this daily. Why would anyone believe a word he says. Eventually he will ask for our boots on the ground to invade Iran. Then blame us for the complete f up that resulted.

  15. Trump said, “We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”‘, so why would UK join Trump in this war that has been won?

  16. toolatealreadyfapped on

    NATO is to ensure that no members are attacked. It doesn’t mean you get to get drunk and start a bar fight because you can count on your crew to jump in when you get hit back.

  17. UK not obliged to support ~~every~~ any demand of ‘transactional’ US president, minister says

  18. AgeingChopper on

    damn right. you already “won” and told us not to turn up Donald. you waged economic war on us and insulted our veterans… go whistle and deal with your own unplanned mess.

  19. Plane-Breakfast-8817 on

    “It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there,” Trump said.

    I can’t stress this enough – Trump has already “done something bad there” and has pretty much guaranteed it’s going to continue to be bad or much, much worse. 

  20. Time go get a backbone. The world needs to stop being such a pushover when it comes to Trump.

  21. Go to Madagascar. Apparently you guys arent good enough to be front line anyways. Member master and commander? Islands stocked full of so many species Paul bettany’s character would’ve loved. Call up Russell Crowe even… Everyone loves some long term resolution

    Edit: I’ll convince all of Canada to meet you guys there. Don’t worry I’m super persuasive and my gramps was in the navy protecting merchant ships crossing the Atlantic. So they definitely owe me one.

    Surprisingly the quebecois were immediately down before I even asked. Knew those guys were dope.

  22. I’m gonna keep quoting it:

    I love that word “relationship.” Covers all manner of sins, doesn’t it? I fear that this has become a bad relationship; a relationship based on the President taking exactly what he wants and casually ignoring all those things that really matter to, erm… Britain. We may be a small country, but we’re a great one, too. The country of Shakespeare, Churchill, the Beatles, Sean Connery, Harry Potter. David Beckham’s right foot. David Beckham’s left foot, come to that. And a friend who bullies us is no longer a friend. And since bullies only respond to strength, from now onward I will be prepared to be much stronger. And the President should be prepared for that.

    23 years old and still a spot-on assessment of anglo-american relations.

  23. I think sending minesweeping drones is a great compromise. However, having a theoretical extremist regime with the power to control the rest of the world probably isn’t sustainable. Lots of reasons to see a peaceful and stable Iran.

  24. hummus_eating_human on

    Rmemeber when he disrespected all the allied troops who died in America’s war in Afghanistan and Iraq by calling them cowards who avoided the front lines?

  25. trump wants other countries to risk enemy attacks in the Strait. Does anyone want to engage in war with Iran from trump’s threats and demands?