President Trump had a full social schedule yesterday. Besides dinking on networks that had pinky-sworn a blood oath to boycott coverage of him and meeting with the local communistas, President Trump took the opportunity to meet with American allies as well.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was in town for the General Assembly get-together, and she and Trump get along famously.
President Trump Participates in a Bilateral Meeting with the Prime Minister of Japan https://t.co/M42ZDitEFq
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 22, 2026
During their meeting, they had a quintessential Trumpish moment when the Japanese PM suggested it might be easier to talk if the press's big ears weren't in the room.
Enough said, and they soon weren't.
This was pretty funny.
TODAY’S BEST TRUMP TV MOMENT 🔥
— TRUMP TV News (@TRUMP_TV_News) September 23, 2026
Japan PM Sanae Takaichi just looked at the press and said she wants to cover a *lot* of agenda items with President Trump…
“Why don’t we ask the press to leave the room?”
Trump doesn’t miss a beat:
“Well, YOU HEARD HER!”
Press gets walked…
...Press gets walked out. Doors close.
Real work starts. This alliance is already hitting different.
You can tell these two mesh like peas and carrots.
What was really excruciating was watching the visitor from the United Kingdom handle his first encounter with the larger-than-life American president in his new role as British Prime Minister.
This was Andy Burnham in 2021.
This has aged well
— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) July 22, 2026
The 2026 Andy Burnham gave off five-year-old-in-the-dentist's-chair vibes almost from the beginning.
Jeez Louise, man - get ahold of yourself.
What a twitch.
Andy Burnham looks and acts really jittery in his press conference with Donald Trump. Terrible body language. Struggling to find the words. Umming and ahing. Fidgety. pic.twitter.com/yHa3xa6H14
— James Melville 🚜 (@JamesMelville) September 22, 2026
And Trump hadn't even warmed up yet.
Everything was crumpets and cream until a Telegraph UK reporter asked, 'The Chagos deal, Mr. President - are you going to support it?'
You can see Burnham sort of blanch and sink in his chair a bit. He adjusts his glasses as Trump makes it pretty dang clear he's a no, nope, nyet.
I THINK IT'S A TERRIBLE DEAL - I DON'T SUPPORT IT
Just look at Burnham's body language.
— Lee Harris (@LeeHarris) September 22, 2026
He's visibly squirming. Brilliant.😂
Oh, dear.
The unambiguous denouncement left the Labour government scrambling. First and foremost were hands waving in the air while panicked voices said, 'I wasn't here! I didn't come up with this idea. THAT WAS THE OTHER GUY.'
Andy Burnham is reviewing the Chagos Islands deal after Donald Trump said it was “terrible” in their first face-to-face meeting.
The Prime Minister said he was doing “everything possible to find a resolution to the issue”, opening the door to scrapping the deal he “inherited” from Sir Keir Starmer.
Mr Burnham reversed his position after a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, in which the US president suggested he should review the “ridiculous” agreement.
Asked by The Telegraph about Britain’s plans to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, Mr Trump said: “I don’t support it. I think it’s terrible. It was a terrible deal... strategically it’s very important.”
He added: “It’s amazing how strategic it is, and I think the Prime Minister is going to be looking at it.”
Mr Burnham nodded in agreement, replying: “Yeah.”
...He told reporters in New York: “I’ve inherited the situation, and we need a resolution.
The reversal came from Burnham himself, who had to do a mortifying 180° from what he'd publicly told the Mauritian prime minister less than 24 hours earlier.
YOICKS
...Speaking after the meeting, Mr Burnham said he would look for a “resolution” and clarified comments made to the Mauritian prime minister on Monday that he would do “everything possible” to continue with the deal.
Apparently, 'everything possible' to reach a resolution now includes a deal death certificate if Trump doesn't budge.
...He also did not deny suggestions that the deal was “dead” or would “change” as a result of his meeting with Mr Trump.
As of this morning, back in London, the official word from the government was 'Yeah, we're gonna give this thing another looksee' with, as hilarious British understatement goes, the Defense Minister Wes Streeting saying the American president had 'provided absolute clarity' on his opposition to the deal.
The UK is reviewing its deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, the defence secretary has said.
Wes Streeting confirmed the deal was being looked at again after US President Donald Trump called it "terrible" at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.
...Streeting said "we have to" review the deal "because the United States doesn't support it".
"What President Trump said yesterday wasn't new but I think it does provide absolute clarity that his position on this Chagos deal as currently drafted is not changing," he told BBC Breakfast.
"So we have to do more work with our American allies, with President Trump and his administration, to get the deal to a place where he can support it."
Streeting said the focus now would be to secure a long-term certainty for the base on Diego Garcia, the Chagos archipelago's largest island.
I don't see Trump rolling over for any deal that hands Chagos to a country wrapped in Chinese debt that is over 250 miles away and never once claimed or colonized the islands until it became a potential financial bonanza. Trump wasn't aware of all the skullduggery when Starmer first presented the treaty to him, or that they led him to believe it was an international judgment rather than the simple opinion the entire handover is based on.
...In 2019, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) gave an advisory opinion that Britain's separation of the Chagos Islands from Mauritius was unlawful and stated the UK must end its administration as rapidly as possible.
While non-binding, the ICJ advisory opinion - which was endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly - emboldened Mauritian assertions of sovereignty and led to the UK opening negotiations in 2022.
But now Trump is fully informed, and you could tell from how he rattled off the particulars that he thinks it's a land-grabbing crock that imperils United States security.
And it still burns that Starmer forced American B-2s to fly into Iran from Missouri instead of being able to use Diego Garcia.
...The Government continues to support the deal, but ministers have accepted that it cannot go forward without the backing of the White House.
Sir Keir’s refusal to allow the US to conduct strikes from bases including Diego Garcia still looms large in the minds of Mr Trump’s closest allies, who view it as a betrayal of the special relationship.
Diego Garcia is 2,400 miles from Iran’s southern coast, putting it out of range of Iranian ballistic missiles but within the operational range of US B-2 bombers.
Trump won't stand for it, and he won't make anything easy for Burnham.
And why should he?
So the squirmy Burnham survived his first Trump encounter with his rear end intact, but with a slight burn inflicted. There was no question who the alpha male was, and, stuttering on the waterfront in an interview afterward, all a still-shaky Burnham could do was mouth how 'clear it was we need to work hard' to find a resolution.
Andy Burnham says he'll now review the Chagos Islands deal to find a "resolution," after Trump told him directly, sitting right next to him at their joint press conference: "I don't support it. I think it's terrible. It was a terrible deal."
— British Intel (@TheBritishIntel) September 22, 2026
It took an American president saying… pic.twitter.com/dpYZXczYS0
...It took an American president saying it to his face before Burnham even pretended to reconsider giving away British territory.
He waited to be told what to think instead of working it out himself.
Burnham is not fit to run the country.
It's gonna be a long slog for those guys with that guy.
Good luck to you, mates.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are once again respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
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