Donald Trump has responded after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Monday, June 22, that he would step down, using the moment to renew his criticism of the outgoing Labour leader.
Starmer said he would resign as leader of the Labour Party and remain as caretaker prime minister until a successor is chosen. The announcement came after weeks of mounting pressure within his party, following a bruising period for Labour and poor local election results across England and Wales.
“The question my party is asking now is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election. I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question. And I accept that answer with good grace.”
His departure makes him the sixth British prime minister to step down since 2016, underscoring the political instability that has defined Westminster over the past decade.
The decision followed a difficult run for Labour, which saw major setbacks in local elections, including the loss of more than 1,000 council seats and significant gains for Reform UK. Even so, Starmer had only recently insisted he intended to stay on and fight the next election.
Before the resignation was formally announced, Trump appeared to predict it in a social media post that sharply criticised Starmer’s record.
“Keir Starmer will resign as prime minister of the United Kingdom. He failed badly on two very important subjects – immigration and energy (Open North Sea oil!). I wish him well! President DJT.”
After Starmer’s resignation was made official, Trump was asked for his reaction during an Oval Office press event. While he began by striking a softer tone, he quickly returned to familiar complaints about UK energy policy.
“I was critical only from this because I think he’s a lovely man,” he said.
“But I said, you’re really messing up energy, you have windmills all over the place. In the meantime, you have the North Sea oil and they won’t let anybody drill. It’s one of the great fields in the world.
“The UK buys most of its energy from you know where? Norway. You know where they get their oil? The North Sea,” he continued.
“The UK has a much better portion of the North Sea, they don’t want to do it for environmental purposes.”
Trump then mixed praise with another attack, describing Starmer warmly before turning to disagreements over Nato and the Chagos Islands.
“I mean, he wasn’t good to us with Nato, right? He said we can’t use the island to land, that was a first. For a couple of weeks he said: ‘Well, but ultimately I gave it to you,’ but that was a bad move. That hurt him badly.” he added, referring to the Chagos Islands.
He signed off by again wishing Starmer well, but not before arguing that crime, immigration and energy policy had seriously damaged his standing.
“He’s really hurt himself, very very badly,” the POTUS concluded.
Tensions between the two men had already been growing for months, particularly over energy policy, immigration and broader disagreements about how closely the UK should align itself with Trump’s political priorities.
Trump has repeatedly taken aim at Starmer and the UK government over what he saw as a refusal to do more on domestic energy production, especially in the North Sea.
He had also previously suggested Starmer fell short of historic British leadership standards and said the relationship between Washington and London was no longer what it once was.
Speaking to Sky News last month, Trump again focused on energy and immigration when discussing the former prime minister.
“I think that I like Starmer, but I think he’s made a tragic mistake in closing the North Sea oil.
“You see, your energy prices are the highest in the world. And I think he’s made a tragic mistake on immigration.”
Trump continued: “How is the relationship? It’s the relationship where: when we asked them for help, they were not there. When we needed them, they were not there. When we didn’t need them, they were not there. And they still aren’t there.”
Asked whether relations between the US and UK were in a very bad place, Trump replied that things had certainly been stronger in the past.
When asked if the US-UK relationship is ‘very bad’ right now, Trump said ‘well, it’s been better, but it’s sad’.