On Sunday, June 21, 2026, Trump used Truth Social to announce that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer would resign, before any public statement from Starmer himself. “Keir Starmer will resign as Prime Minister of The United Kingdom,” Trump wrote. “He failed badly on two very important subjects- IMMIGRATION AND ENERGY (OPEN NORTH SEA OIL!). I wish him well!”
British media had reported earlier that day that Starmer was considering resigning after Labour's heavy local-election losses in May and Andy Burnham's by-election win. But Downing Street told The Washington Post that Starmer and Trump had not spoken over the weekend, and a Downing Street spokesperson pointed CNN to Starmer's Friday statement that he was focused on “what I was elected to do, which is to serve my country.” ITV's Robert Peston cited a cabinet minister who said Starmer had “genuinely not made a decision to quit,” and wrote of Trump: “There is literally no boundary this American president will not bulldoze through.” The Post called the post an extraordinary foray into British domestic politics. Relations between the two leaders had soured over the Iran war, which Britain did not join.
Update (October 2, 2026): The next day, June 22, Starmer announced that he would step down as Labour leader and remain prime minister until a successor was chosen, AP reported.
Correction (October 2, 2026): This entry attributed the phrase “extraordinary foray into U.K. politics” to ITV's Robert Peston. That was The Washington Post's own description; Peston's quoted words were “There is literally no boundary this American president will not bulldoze through.”