President Donald Trump met with Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom on Monday, only one day after securing a trade deal with the European Union.
During their meeting on the front steps of his Turnberry golf course in Scotland, Trump made a bold move by telling Starmer in front of reporters and the cameras that he needed to take action against illegal immigration.
“Well, immigration is a big, big factor. And I think, frankly, if they’re coming from other countries and you don’t know who they are and are they coming from prisons, we have them where they came in from prisons, we’re moving them all out. We had a border last last June, just recent, you know, last month, we had zero people come into the country, zero, other than come in through legal means. If you’re stopping immigration and stopping the wrong people,” Trump declared.
“You’re doing a — not a good thing, you’re doing a fantastic thing. So I know nothing about the boats. But if the boats are loaded up with bad people and they usually are because, you know, other countries don’t send their best. They send people that they don’t want and they’re not stupid people. And they send the people that they don’t want. And I’ve heard that you’ve taken a much stronger stance,” Trump added.
“Yeah, we’ve done a lot of work stopping them coming. We just signed an agreement to return them. And we’ve returned 35,000, in fact, on the first year of this Labour government, the people who shouldn’t be in this country. So we’re very pleased that we’re getting on with returning people who’ve no right to be here,” Starmer responded.
Trump dressed him down again.
“That’s great. As somebody that loves this, I love this country. My mother was born in — as you know, my mother was born in Scotland and it’s an incredible place, a beautiful place. And if that be the case, I congratulate you. That’s exactly — because, you know, Europe is going to — is a much different place than it was just 5 years ago, 10 years ago. And they’ve got to get their act together. If they don’t, you’re not going to have Europe anymore, as you know it,” Trump said.
Trump added, “And you can’t do that. This is a magnificent part of the world and you cannot ruin it. You cannot let people come in here illegally. And what happens is there’ll be murderers, there’ll be drug dealers, there’ll be all sorts of things that other countries don’t want. And they send them to you and they send them to us. And you’ve got to stop them. And I hear that you’ve taken a very strong stand on immigration. And taking a strong stand on immigration is imperative.”
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Trump also said that he was “very disappointed” in Russian President Vladimir Putin and that he would “reduce” the original 50-day deadline he set earlier this month to 10–12 days from today.
“I’m going to make a new deadline, of about 10, 10 or 12 days from today,” Trump told reporters from Scotland. “There’s no reason for waiting. It was 50 days, I wanted to be generous, but we just don’t see any progress being made.”
On July 14, Trump met with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in Washington, D.C., and set a 50-day ultimatum for Putin to strike a peace settlement. However, by extending the deadline ahead to 12 days from Monday, he reduced the entire finish date in half.
“I’m disappointed in President Putin, very disappointed in him,” Trump said Monday. “So we’re going to have to look, and I’m going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number, because I think I already know the answer.”
Trump’s statements come only hours after Russia launched over 300 drones and missiles across Ukraine, leading not only Kyiv to scramble its Air Force, but also Poland’s Operational Command to send fighter planes into the skies.
