One of Donald Trump’s top US allies backed Keir Starmer’s approach to Greenland – hours after the president launched a humiliating attack on the PM.
Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, spoke to MPs this morning as part of a goodwill visit to the UK marking the 250th anniversary of American independence.
Unexpectedly, he found himself having to confront one of the most alarming blows to the ‘special relationship’ in living memory as the row over Greenland continues to ramp up.
Following Starmer’s extraordinary press conference yesterday, in which he defended his calls for ‘calm discussions between allies’, Trump targeted him in a post on his Truth Social site.
He called the UK a ‘”brilliant” Nato ally’ – with the word in apparently sarcastic quotation marks – and described plans to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius as an ‘act of great stupidity’.
In his speech today, Johnson told attendees in Parliament he was speaking at a ‘pivotal moment in the great histories of our countries’ and emphasised the UK and US would face challenges ‘together’ in the present.
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The Republican said: ‘When I met Prime Minister Starmer at Downing Street yesterday, I told him I thought his national address a few hours earlier was well done.
‘He noted, of course, that the UK and US are close allies and that our strong, constructive partnership all these years has been built on mutual respect and focused on results.
‘I thought that was exactly the right message and the right tone.
‘And because of that, we’ve always been able to work through our differences calmly as friends, and we will continue to do that.’
He added: ‘I want to assure you this morning that that is still the case.’
Johnson revealed he had spoken to Trump ‘at length’ on Monday, and told him his ‘mission’ on the UK trip was to ‘encourage our friends and help to calm the waters’.
The relationship between the US and UK appeared anything but calm after the US President declined to tone down his rhetoric last night.
In an interview with NBC News, he refused to rule out using force to claim Greenland for the US and said he would ‘100%’ follow through on threats to dump tariffs on allies including the UK over their approach to the crisis.
Trump told the outlet: ‘Europe ought to focus on the war with Russia and Ukraine because, frankly, you see what that’s gotten them.
‘That’s what Europe should focus on — not Greenland.’
He also implied in a scathing text message to the Prime Minister of Norway that his plan to seize Greenland stemmed from the Nobel Committee’s decision not to award him the Peace Prize last year.
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