Donald Trump has threatened to rip up the trade deal the United States signed with the UK last year, in his sharpest economic warning yet to Keir Starmer’s government over its refusal to join the Iran war – telling Sky News the special relationship is in a “sad state” and that Britain was “not there when we needed them.”
In an interview conducted on Trump’s personal mobile phone – his preferred method of delivering unfiltered commentary to journalists – the US president said the deal struck with the UK in May 2025, which cut American tariffs on British cars, aluminium and steel, was “better than I had to” and warned pointedly that it “can always be changed.”
Last May, Trump himself said America and Britain had agreed a “full and comprehensive” trade deal that would “cement the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom for many years to come.”
That assessment now appears to have an expiry date attached.
‘They were not there – and they still aren’t’
When Sky News asked Trump about the state of the special relationship, his initial response was to say “With who?” – a moment of either studied contempt or genuine indifference that British officials will have found difficult to ignore.
Once clarified, he was scathing. “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.”
He added: “It’s been better, but it’s sad. And we gave them a good trade deal, better than I had to, which can always be changed.”
The comments represent a significant escalation. Previous attacks on Starmer – comparing him to Neville Chamberlain, calling him “not Winston Churchill,” saying he had been “not helpful” – were personal and rhetorical. Threatening to alter the trade deal introduces an economic dimension to what has until now been a diplomatic dispute.
What the trade deal is worth
The UK-US trade deal signed in May 2025 was the first agreement Trump reached with any country after his “Liberation Day” tariff announcements and was celebrated by the British government as evidence of the enduring special relationship. It is not a free trade agreement in the traditional sense but more of a “starter pack,” with both sides making certain commitments while leaving most details to be worked out later. Key provisions included reduced US tariffs on British cars, steel and aluminium – sectors that directly affect hundreds of thousands of jobs in the UK.
UK ministers have cited the agreement repeatedly as evidence that the relationship with Washington, however strained rhetorically, remains substantively intact. Trump’s suggestion that it “can always be changed” strips away that argument.
Reeves ‘frustrated and angry’ – and heading to the IMF
The trade deal threat comes at a particularly difficult moment for the British economy. Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, is in Washington for meetings at the International Monetary Fund – whose spring meetings are dominated by the crisis in the Gulf. The IMF has already cut Britain’s economic growth forecast as a direct result of the Iran conflict and has warned that a worldwide recession could be on the cards if the situation deteriorates further.
![CHANCELLOR RACHEL REEVES: There's nothing that women can't do. [YouTube]](https://thedailybritain.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/rachelreeveswomeninparliament-1024x740.jpg)
Reeves has described herself as “frustrated and angry” that the US launched its Iran strikes without a clear idea of its objectives, and has condemned what she called the “folly” of the US’s actions and their financial fallout on British families. She is set to meet US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has said that “a small bit of economic pain” caused by the Iran war was worth it to prevent Tehran getting a nuclear weapon – a framing that put him sharply at odds with Reeves’s assessment.
Despite those tensions, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey sought to offer reassurance, saying the UK was “much better placed to deal with the fallout” than many comparable economies because of the resilience built into the banking system after the 2007-09 financial crisis.
Trump’s domestic policy lectures
Beyond the trade threat, Trump used the Sky News interview to deliver what amounted to an extended lecture on British domestic policy – criticising the government’s approach to North Sea oil and immigration in terms that went well beyond standard diplomatic disagreement.
“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,” he said. “And I think he’s made a tragic mistake on immigration. I love your country, and I would love to see it succeed. But if you have bad immigration policies and bad energy policies, you have the worst of both.”
He added: “A lot of people ask me what I think about them, and I think they’re insane. They’re destroying your country.”
Starmer’s government has been at pains to point out that energy prices in Britain are high primarily because of the Iran war – a war that the United States started – and that the closure of North Sea drilling is a long-term environmental policy rather than the cause of any short-term price spike.
The King’s state visit – and what it means
Trump suggested that a permanent ceasefire with Iran could be struck before King Charles’s state visit to the United States later this month, and insisted that the breakdown in the political relationship between the two governments would not affect the visit itself.
The state visit carries its own complexity. It is an opportunity for the UK to demonstrate the resilience of the bilateral relationship at the level of institutions and history – the monarchy, the intelligence alliance, the deep economic interdependence – even as the political relationship between the two governments has deteriorated significantly.
The US is the UK’s largest single trading partner, accounting for around 18% of Britain’s total trade, and both countries have significant investments in each other’s economies. The alliance is also a key cornerstone of UK security, with the UK reliant on collaboration on nuclear technology and intelligence sharing.
That underlying institutional depth is what British officials point to when they insist, privately and publicly, that the special relationship is not over – that Trump’s rhetoric is personal and political rather than structural, and that the two countries remain deeply intertwined in ways that no single president can undo.
The EU pivot
What Trump’s interview makes clear – perhaps unintentionally – is how his behaviour is actively accelerating the very thing he most objects to: Britain’s pivot toward Europe.
Starmer has increasingly argued that the economic and security benefits of a closer relationship with the EU are “simply too big to ignore,” particularly at a time of global volatility and with an American president who threatens to renegotiate trade deals via mobile phone interview. The government’s new EU alignment bill – which would allow ministers to adopt EU single market rules through secondary legislation – is being developed in parallel with these deteriorating transatlantic relations.
For a US president who spent his first term trying to accelerate the disintegration of European unity, the Iran war may turn out to be the event that pushed Britain back toward the EU – the opposite of what Trump would want. That irony appears, for now, to be lost on him.
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