UNCONFIRMED: the purchase idea rests on The Telegraph's unnamed sources; other outlets restate it, and Mauritius said it had not been approached.
The White House is reportedly weighing a plan to buy the Chagos Islands, a chain of dozens of islands in the Indian Ocean that includes the strategically important Diego Garcia military base, after President Trump's push to take control of Greenland failed. The Telegraph first reported on June 7, 2026 that buying the territory was among the options presented to Trump, and that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent raised the idea with the president, though it was reportedly not a leading option. Under the reported proposal, the U.S. would bypass Britain and negotiate the purchase directly with Mauritius once sovereignty had passed to it.
Mauritius said it had not been approached. “Mauritius's position remains unchanged: its sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago is non-negotiable,” its government said in a statement. A White House official, speaking on background, called Diego Garcia “a vital and indispensable military installation of significant importance to the national security of the United States” and said Trump remains opposed to Britain's plan to transfer sovereignty. Any purchase would likely require congressional authorization and funding, The Center Square reported.
Britain agreed to hand sovereignty over the islands to Mauritius while keeping a 99-year lease on Diego Garcia. Trump's position on that deal has swung back and forth: Washington blessed the agreement in 2025, Trump called it “an act of GREAT STUPIDITY” in January 2026, the State Department publicly backed it on February 17, and the next day Trump posted, “DO NOT GIVE AWAY DIEGO GARCIA!” Britain shelved the handover legislation in April after the U.S. withdrew its support and has said it will not proceed without U.S. backing.
The Chagos idea extends a pattern of territorial-acquisition talk in Trump's second term. He has threatened to seize or annex Greenland, Canada, Venezuela, Panama and Cuba, and has floated Canada and Venezuela as potential “51st states” (see Buying Greenland, Trump Revives His '51st State' Taunt at Canada After It Slips Into a Technical Recession).
Correction (October 2, 2026): This entry said the U.S. withdrew its support for the U.K.-Mauritius deal in January. The record is more mixed: Trump attacked the deal in January, but the State Department endorsed it on February 17 before Trump attacked it again the next day, and Britain shelved its legislation in April after U.S. support was withdrawn. The entry now gives that sequence and adds that the purchase option was reportedly not a leading one and that Mauritius said it had not been approached.