President Donald Trump ripped into the United Kingdom on Tuesday for its plan to cede control of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius. 

Trump said that the deal showed “weakness” to Russia and China and would endanger a key American military base located on the island of Diego Garcia, one of the Chagos Islands. Last year, the United Kingdom inked a deal to hand control of the islands over to Mauritius. At the time, the agreement was supported by the Trump administration. 

“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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “There is no doubt that China and Russia have noticed this act of total weakness. These are International Powers who only recognize STRENGTH, which is why the United States of America, under my leadership, is now, after only one year, respected like never before.”

Trump said that the deal showed the strategic necessity of the United States acquiring Greenland. 

“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. Denmark and its European Allies have to DO THE RIGHT THING,” he added. 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent echoed that same reasoning during an appearance at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday. 

“The U.K. is signing the island over to Mauritius. So again, I can see why the president believes that for U.S. engagement we do not want another Diego Garcia on our hands,” Bessent said, referring to Trump’s Greenland aspirations. 

A spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that his “position hasn’t changed on Diego Garcia or on the treaty that’s been signed.”

The Naval base on Diego Garcia provides logistical support to American forces deployed for missions in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf. The island is home to about 280 Navy personnel, 40 Air Force personnel, and 40 British troops. 

Trump’s State Department previously approved the agreement to return the islands to Mauritius’ control. The island of Diego Garcia would be leased to the United Kingdom for 99 years. The Trump administration determined that the deal secured “the long-term, stable, and effective operation of the joint U.S.-UK military facility at Diego Garcia,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at the time. 

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the anti-ICE activists who stormed a Minnesota church on Sunday were professional “troublemakers” who should be incarcerated or “thrown out of the country.” 

Trump’s comments come as his Justice Department has pledged to bring charges against the leftists who entered Cities Church in St. Paul and recited chants like “Justice for Renee Good,” “Hands up, don’t shoot,” and “ICE out of Minnesota.” Former CNN host Don Lemon livestreamed the protest under the guise of being an independent journalist.  

“Just watched footage of the Church Raid in Minnesota by the agitators and insurrectionists. These people are professionals! No person acts the way they act. They are highly trained to scream, rant, and rave, like lunatics, in a certain manner, just like they are doing. They are troublemakers who should be thrown in jail, or thrown out of the Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social early Tuesday morning. 

The protest was organized and promoted by the Racial Justice Network and Black Lives Matter Twin Cities.

Cities Church was targeted because one of its pastors works for ICE. William Kelly, a prominent professional protester who has demonstrated outside the church of War Secretary Pete Hegseth in Washington, D.C., was among those who entered the sanctuary during the Sunday morning service. 

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said Monday that charges for those involved in the protest are forthcoming. She also suggested that Lemon could face charges if he knowingly participated in a conspiracy against civil rights. 

“I see various crimes that have occurred,” she told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson on Monday. “Exactly what they are I’m not going to flag, but the FACE Act has been mentioned as one of the predicates there. In other cases, the Biden DOJ used the Klan Act conspiracy charges tacked onto the FACE Act in the case of protests outside abortion clinics to bring much longer sentences.”

The FACE Act protects the rights of those attending worship services to be free from disruption.

Dhillon told The Daily Wire that two Justice Department prosecutors traveled to Minnesota on Monday to handle the case. 

“You can have your protest in a park, you can have a march, you can get a permit for a large gathering, but you can’t just go wherever you want and tear things up and disrupt,” she said. “And that’s what these people did. And so now, people are afraid to go to church. And that is an absolute disgrace in this country.”