United States President Donald Trump has posted on social media that there is no need for the United Kingdom to deploy aircraft carriers to the Middle East amid the ongoing war with Iran.
Saturday’s post on TruthSocial follows a statement by the UK Ministry of Defense that one of its two flagship aircraft carriers, HMS Prince of Wales, has been placed on “high alert”.
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“The United Kingdom, our once great ally, perhaps our greatest, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East,” Trump wrote.
“That’s right, Prime Minister Stormer, we don’t need them anymore – but we remember. We don’t need people joining the war after we’ve already won!”
The post, which refers to the UK as a “once great ally”, points to a deep rift between the two countries that has emerged since Trump returned to power last year.
The rift appears to have deepened over the past week as the US and Israel continue to hammer Iran as part of a war they launched on February 28.
The conflict has sparked fears across the Middle East as retaliatory strikes from Tehran target US allies across the region.
Already, an estimated 1,332 people have died in Iran and the US has confirmed the deaths of six of its service members. Most deaths have been reported in countries like Lebanon, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq.
The UK government has increased its involvement in the war against Iran, which is widely considered illegal under international law.
For example, the UK Ministry of Defense said on Saturday that Prime Minister Keir Stormer’s government had allowed the US to use its military bases for “limited defensive purposes”.
Bases include RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and the Diego Garcia site in the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean. Initially, there were reports that the US had restricted the use of Stormer bases.
In the immediate aftermath of the initial US-Israeli strike, Stormer appeared blanched at the prospect of joining the war.
He and the leaders of France and Germany issued a joint statement stressing that any measures they take will be defensive in nature.
“We will take steps to protect our interests and those of our allies in the region by enabling necessary and proportionate countermeasures to destroy Iran’s ability to launch missiles and drones at their source,” the joint statement said.
“We have agreed to work together with the US and allies on this matter.”
But Stormer had to push back against domestic criticism to join the war.
On Monday, he told the UK Parliament, “We are not joining US and Israeli offensive strikes”, citing the need to protect “Britain’s national interest” and “British lives”.
The war in Iran is not very popular in the UK. Survey firm Survation conducted a survey of 1,045 British adults last week and found that 43 percent of respondents called the war unjustifiable.
When asked if they supported Stormer’s initial decision not to allow the US to use British bases, 56 percent of respondents approved. Only 27 percent said it was wrong choice.
Thousands of protesters called for an end to the ballooning conflict outside the US embassy in London on Saturday.
But Trump has stepped up his criticism of Stormer in the past week, further straining relations with the UK government.
On March 3, for example, he held an Oval Office meeting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has repeatedly said he is “not happy with the UK”.
Of Stormer, Trump added, “This is not Winston Churchill we’re dealing with.”
Trump has long admired Churchill and last year installed a statue of the wartime prime minister in the Oval Office, just as he did during his first term.
In contrast, the US president has issued a flood of criticism against Stormer, particularly for his 2024 decision to transfer control of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
The transfer comes after an international court found that the UK had acted illegally in 1965 by separating the islands from Mauritius to create a separate colony.
However, the agreement with Mauritius allows the US and UK to maintain a military base in Diego Garcia, part of the archipelago.
Trump has repeatedly slammed the transfer, however, writing on social media that “giving away the most important land is an act of great stupidity.”
Tensions between the US and the UK rose in January after Trump told Fox News that NATO allies were “a bit off the front lines” during the US war in Afghanistan.
Stormer responded that Trump’s comments were “disgraceful and frankly appalling.”
However, the Trump administration has signaled that it is turning away from its traditional European allies in favor of more politically aligned countries.
At a summit Saturday with far-right Latin American leaders, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio praised the participants while throwing shade at other allies.
“At a time when we’ve learned, allies when you need them, maybe not for you, these are the countries that are there for us,” Rubio said at the summit.
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