Trump, Sen. Kennedy Excoriate Bad UK Move on Diego Garcia That Sabotages Our National Security – RedState
Diego Garcia is probably not something that comes up frequently in conversations.
But we have an incredibly important military base there that we share with the British and that faces all kinds of threats to our national security, particularly from China. It is part of the Chagos Islands.
The Diego Garcia base, known colloquially as the “Freedom Footprint,” is one of the few outside the United States that can reload nuclear submarines, port aircraft carriers, and base and launch strategic bombers, and is critical to Space Force operations.
Diego Garcia supports operations in some of the world’s most strategically and economically important regions – from the Middle East to Central Asia to the Pacific Ocean – while being protected by the vast Indian Ocean “moats.” It is key to projecting U.S. power in the Indo-Pacific and deterring the growing naval threat from China.
The Chagos Islands are currently controlled by the United Kingdom, but the United Kingdom is about to return the territory to Mauritius. President Donald Trump has taken up the idea. Trump said China and Russia undoubtedly noticed this act of “weakness.” He stressed that it was “extremely important” and an act of “great stupidity” in terms of our national security.
– Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 20, 2026
The British deal would give the island to Mauritius, with a lease for the base.
But the big problem? Mauritius is under strong Chinese influence, as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent points out here.
.@SecScottBessent: “@POTUS just believes that the US needs Greenland because no one will move then… we share a military installation on an island called Diego Garcia, and the UK gives that island to Mauritius, and guess who is behind Maurice? The Chinese!” https://t.co/mILUtwhjgo pic.twitter.com/llFbYiofOE
– Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 20, 2026
Why would the UK do this, even with a lease, which doesn’t guarantee much if China decides to take action against it after the UK leaves?
Can we talk about how incredibly stupid and dangerous this is to our national security? Let’s hear Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) explain the problem in January of last year, in his inimitable way. He explains how they want to “give it back” – not to the people of the Chagos Islands, but to another island, Mauritius. “This kind of stupidity requires a plan,” he said.
DIEGO GARCIA: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has done his best to hand over our military base, Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean. Watch John Kennedy tear the agreement to shreds. pic.twitter.com/IDz523mQwE
– @amuse (@amuse) January 23, 2025
Kennedy said we would end up paying for the military base that we spent a lot of money to help build.
“Put down the bong!” Kennedy spoke to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer about the deal.
But what does it mean when Starmer commits suicide like this?
British Conservatives agreed with Trump, and some residents of the Chagos Islands were also unhappy with the deal. You don’t even give the islands back to the island people.
The leader of Britain’s opposition Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has come out in favor of a deal with Trump on the Chagos Islands, saying the “terrible” deal weakened Britain’s security.
“Paying to cede the Chagos Islands is not only an act of stupidity, but complete self-sabotage,” she posted, adding that “unfortunately on this issue, President Trump is right.”
Some Chagossians, many of whom ended up living in Britain after being expelled from the archipelago, also opposed the agreement on the grounds that they had not been consulted. A U.N. committee said in December that the deal risked perpetuating long-standing violations of the Chagossians’ rights.
There are also “poison pills” in the treaty, as Cléo Paskal explains. She is a journalist and nonresident senior fellow for the Indo-Pacific at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
UK-MAURITIUS AGREEMENT RAISES RED FLAGS@CleoPaskal warns that the UK’s proposed Diego Garcia deal includes legal “poison pills” that could expose US forces to treaty violations and jeopardize long-term access to a critical military base.@bannons_warroom pic.twitter.com/yCT1rcMyEP
– The Voice of Real America (RAV) (@RealAmVoice) January 20, 2026
The United States can still stop it, but it has to go all out.
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