Before he traveled back home to the United States on Thursday, President Donald Trump advised U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer at a joint press conference to use the army to control his country’s immigration.
“You have people coming in, and I told the prime minister I would stop it, and it doesn’t matter if you call out the military. It doesn’t matter what means you use,” Trump told Starmer in front of reporters on his second state visit to the U.K. “It destroys countries from within, and we’re actually now removing a lot of the people that came into our country. It’s a very hard chore.”
Comparing the U.K.’s immigration situation to that of the U.S., Trump claimed, without evidence, that during the Biden administration “millions” of migrants came to the U.S. “totally unchecked” from prisons and mental institutions in other countries.
Just days before the meeting between the two leaders, tens of thousands of people flooded London’s streets in dueling protests, the more prominent, “Unite the Kingdom,” led by far-right activist and nationalist Tommy Robinson. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is known for pushing anti-Muslim and anti-migrant sentiment.
Trump is facing backlash at home for deploying the National Guard to major cities like Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., to deal with what he has called “out of control” crime — even though violent crime was trending statistically lower in many cities prior to his intervention. While Republican state and local leaders have welcomed the move, Democrats like Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker have said Trump’s order actually makes communities feel less safe and does not lower crime. In addition to announcing a tech deal that promised nearly $200 billion in U.S. investment in, among other things, artificial intelligence and nuclear power in the U.K., the leaders also discussed ongoing global events, including Russia’s war on Ukraine and Israel’s war on Gaza. Starmer said the U.K. intends to formally recognize a Palestinian state before the U.N. General Assembly in New York this month unless Israel meets certain conditions, like alleviating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which he called “intolerable.” Trump said he had “a disagreement with the prime minister” on the recognition of a Palestinian state.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter and producer for MS NOW. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
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