Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump lambasted the United Kingdom for a little-known but controversial pending decision late Monday night, just hours before he was scheduled to jet off to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting.
“Shockingly, our ‘brilliant’ NATO Ally, the United Kingdom, is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital U.S. Military Base, to Mauritius, and to do so FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
Diego Garcia is a little-known tropical island in the Indian Ocean. It is one of dozens in the Chagos Archipelago island chain. There is currently a secretive U.S.-U.K. joint military base on Diego Garcia, though few have probably heard of it.
“There is no doubt that China and Russia have noticed this act of total weakness,” President Trump said of the UK’s pending decision. “…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.”
The president has aggressively pursued the acquisition of Greenland over the past few weeks, noting that it is important for national security purposes, and at the very least, to stop China or Russia from taking the distinctly Western territory.
Mauritius is a small country in the Indian Ocean, just east of Madagascar. They are an independent republic. The country is probably best known as a tropical destination for tourists.
The discussion surrounding the secession of Diego Garcia to Mauritius has largely flown under the radar, but it was a point of contention last year in the U.S. Senate, during a speech delivered by Senator John Kennedy, R-La.
“Do you know who is loving all of this? China, because China has a close relationship with Mauritius. And do you know what? It is going to get a lot closer,” he warned in February 2025, while speaking about the possibility of losing a joint military base in the Chagos chain.
Sen. Kennedy continued, “This is insane. This is cell-deep stupid. This is bone-deep, down-to-the-marrow stupid. Because the United Nations wants the United Kingdom to feel guilty, they want to give our military base and their military base to Mauritius.”
He said that the UK’s upcoming decision on the matter could “really hurt the relationship between the United States of America and the United Kingdom.”
The UK’s potential move to essentially “give away” Diego Garcia has also been criticized by current Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He raised concerns in 2024 about losing the island while he was still acting as a U.S. Senator in Florida, noting that China would see it as an opportunity to gain a foothold in the region.
“This poses a serious threat to our national security interests in the Indian Ocean and threatens critical U.S. military posture in the region,” he said, per Politico.
