Trump tells GB News he would not back Britain over the Falklands after Iran

Donald Trump used a GB News interview on Thursday, 3 September, to link the Falkland Islands to the war with Iran. Asked whether the United States would come to Britain’s aid if Argentina moved on the islands, he said London “was not there to help me” in the Strait of Hormuz and that Britain is “not doing well.”

He said he remembered the 1982 war, that Britain “comported itself very well” and took the islands back “pretty strongly,” and that the archipelago is “a long way away.” He then said he did not know if Britain had the capacity to do it again. He added that the United Kingdom draws a large share of its oil through Hormuz and that he had asked NATO, and then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer, to send “a couple of ships.” He said Starmer told him none were available, which he called “pretty sad.” He also said the United States did not need the help.

The comments follow an Oval Office remark on 31 August, when Trump said he reviews “every position” and that the long-standing US stance on the islands was “just one of many.” Washington has for decades recognised British administration and stayed neutral on sovereignty. A British Foreign Office minister replied that the UK position is unchanged: the Falklands are a British overseas territory and their future is for the islanders to decide.

In Buenos Aires the timing is useful. President Javier Milei has been accused at home of going soft on the Malvinas claim while he courted Trump. His approval rating fell from 52 percent in January to 38 percent in July, according to Casa Tres. He was preparing a national address as Trump spoke, with local reports saying he would target oil drilling off the islands and that Washington and Buenos Aires have discussed US access to that oil. Those talks have not been published as a signed deal.

The military facts on the ground have not moved. Britain keeps a garrison and air link on the islands. Argentina has no present amphibious force that matches 1982. Trump’s words still matter because they turn a settled US posture into a bargaining chip. A leaked State Department memo in April had already floated the islands as leverage over London on NATO spending. Thursday’s interview made that leverage public and tied it to a live war.

Starmer is no longer in office in this telling of the Hormuz request, which is why the quote sits in the past tense. The current British government still has to answer two practical questions. First, whether it will put hulls in the Gulf after being told that absence has a price in the South Atlantic. Second, whether it will raise the Falklands garrison and patrol schedule on the assumption that US lift and satellite cover might not arrive.

Milei’s oil move, if it lands, will test companies that hold licences around the islands. It will also test whether Trump’s review is a talking point or the start of a written change in the US recognition line. Until a presidential directive or a State Department notice appears, the legal position is what it was on Monday. The political position is not.