Trump accuses UK of 'great stupidity' for handing over Chagos Islands to Mauritius
The comments signal a clear shift from Trump’s previous endorsement of the deal.
US President Donald Trump has accused the United Kingdom of "great stupidity" for a deal to hand the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius.
"The UK giving away extremely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY, and is another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday.
The comments mark a major change of position for Trump, who previously endorsed the deal.
Meanwhile, the UK hit back against criticism by US President Donald Trump over the deal.
"This deal secures the operations of the joint US-UK base on Diego Garcia for generations, with robust provisions for keeping its unique capabilities intact and our adversaries out," Downing Street said.
It also said the UK accord to hand the archipelago back to its former colony "has been publicly welcomed by the US, Australia and all other Five Eyes allies," referring to an intelligence network established post-World War II between the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The agreement will see Britain hand back the archipelago to its former colony and pay to lease a key US-UK military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island.
Britain kept control of the Chagos Islands after Mauritius gained independence in the 1960s.
But it evicted thousands of Chagos islanders who have since mounted a series of legal claims for compensation in British courts.
In 2019, the International Court of Justice recommended that Britain hand the archipelago to Mauritius after decades of legal battles.