U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to renege on a trade agreement with the United Kingdom that limits the impact of U.S. tariffs, as he again criticized Britain's lack of support in the Iran war.
But Trump, who has repeatedly slammed the policies of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said strains in the relationship with the U.S. NATO ally would "not at all" negatively affect King Charles III's state visit to the United States later this month.
"We gave them a good trade deal, better than I had to, which can always be changed," the president was quoted as saying by Sky News on Wednesday. The comments came in a phone interview with Sky News U.S. reporter Mark Stone.
London and Washington concluded a trade agreement last year capping U.S. tariffs at 10% on most British manufactured goods. In return, the U.K. agreed to open its markets further to American ethanol and beef, sparking domestic concerns.
At the time, the agreement was advantageous for London, which benefited from the lowest tariffs granted by the U.S. That advantage has since weakened after the Supreme Court struck down some U.S. tariffs and Washington retaliated by imposing a temporary 10% tariff on nearly all imports pending a new tariff regime by July.
While Trump praised his relationship with Starmer at the time of the agreement, transatlantic ties have since deteriorated, particularly over the war in the Middle East.
Starmer angered Trump by refusing to allow British bases to be used for the initial U.S. strikes on Iran last month. He later agreed to a U.S. request to use two British military bases for a "specific and limited defensive purpose."
"It's a relationship where when we asked them for help, they were not there," Trump told Sky News. "When we needed them, they were not there. When we didn't need them, they were not there. They still aren't there."
Starmer's Labour government, which has sought to build bridges with Trump since his return to the White House in January 2025, has recently hardened its rhetoric toward its historic ally.
Treasury chief Rachel Reeves on Tuesday hit out at the "folly" of Trump launching a war with Iran "without a clear exit plan."
Starmer told Parliament on Monday that Trump was wrong to threaten to destroy Iranian civilization, while Health Minister Wes Streeting on Sunday criticized the president's language as "incendiary, provocative, outrageous."
Against this backdrop, Reeves was scheduled to meet with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday as part of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting set to detail the economic impact of the conflict.
