It is in the power of the British government to save itself by giving its own voters what they clearly want, President Donald Trump reminded.
Britain’s governing Labour Party is reeling from a brutal national election last week and has knives out for its flailing leader, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, but if it could only drop its ideological attachment to mass migration and breakneck decarbonisation it could survive, President Donald Trump said. Speaking aboard Air Force One as he returned from his China trip, the President again called on Britain to turn its back on self-harm and fix some of the fundamentals destroying its economy and living standards.
Responding to a journalist’s question, President Trump said that while Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had serious policy problems, he’s nevertheless “a nice man, actually”, and could turn the country around if he tried. The President said:
He’s in trouble for two reasons. Energy, and immigration. He’s very bad on energy, he should open up the North Sea. He’s got a goldmine! And he should open up oil in the North Sea and he doesn’t. they have a tremendous value… you know they buy their oil, a lot of it, from Norway? Norway gets it from the North Sea! Not as good an area as Scotland, the UK, so they’re paying Norway a fortune for oil coming out of the North Sea.
Instead of drilling for its own power — Britain has enormous untapped potential in natural gas, oil, and fracking — the country’s Green extremist energy minister is leaning heavily into predominantly Chinese-made renewables. Wind turbines are the “most expensive form of energy, they kill the birds, they’re unsightly, they’re ruining the landscape”, Trump said, calling for Starmer stop pumping the brakes on domestic energy.
Reflecting on Starmer’s chances of political survival, the President mused “it’s a tough thing” and said “unless he can straighten out immigration, where he’s weak”, the British Prime Minister had little chance.
President Trump’s diagnosis of Britain’s woes is shared by some British political parties, including Nigel Farage’s poll-topping Reform UK. Mr Farage has made clear he understands that the housing crisis, one of the key cost-of-living challenges facing Britons, is intensified by surging demand caused by mass migration, and that economic growth can be unleashed by opening the taps of cheap energy.
Criticism of the UK’s policies on open borders and throttling energy supply have long been a key criticism of President Trump, who nevertheless has tended to moderate his remarks by always mixing them with personal praise for Britain’s leaders. During last month’s state visit of King Charles III to Washington, Trump again hit these notes, and said:
I like Keir Starmer very much, but I think he’s made a tragic mistake on immigration and a tragic mistake on energy… [the King is] a much different person than your prime minister. Your prime minister has to learn to deal the way he deals, and he’ll do a lot better.
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