Donald Trump is right and is using the Falklands to force misguided leaders to do what the British people have long demanded

Thank you for subscribing!

Washington still sees Britain as a country that could lead among European allies, writes the US columnist

Donald Trump is right. Britain has to take defence seriously. It has not done so in decades.

That is the unvarnished truth sitting underneath this week’s headlines about the Falklands, and no amount of Westminster indignation will make it less true.

How come it takes the President of the United States to make your leaders understand such a basic fact? A country that cannot reliably defend its own territory, its own people and its own overseas territories is not a serious country.

British defence spending has become a joke: announcements, reviews, “pathways” and photo opportunities while the forces shrink, munitions run short and shipyards wait. Year after year the political class has treated the first duty of the state as a residual, something to be trimmed after everything else has been protected.

Excruciatingly, under successive governments, you still find the money for a long list of wasteful, high-minded nonsense. There is never quite enough to defend your own nation, yet there appears to be an unlimited pot when it comes to welcoming and supporting illegal migrants.

Hotels, legal aid, support packages, endless process: the cash appears. Perhaps even footing the bill for Britain- betrayers, Harry and Meghan. Ask for frigates, ammunition and a serious industrial base and suddenly the cupboard is bare.

That is the context in which Pentagon officials have discussed using America’s position on the Falkland Islands as leverage.

The United States formally remains neutral on sovereignty while recognising British administration of the islands.

It is now making clear that this courtesy is not automatic if London continues to treat Nato’s five per cent pledge — and even the more modest three per cent milestone — as optional extras.

A senior official told The Telegraph that Britain would receive “special attention” because it has so much potential. Conversations, they said, were candid.

Nothing was being ruled out as a way of encouraging the burden-sharing Washington wants.

Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s top policy official, has already said publicly that the United States hopes to see more from countries like the United Kingdom.

He has praised Germany, Poland, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian states for moving faster to fill gaps left as America shifts weight towards the Indo-Pacific.

Britain, by contrast, is being told to step up in major, fundamental ways. The defence investment plan announced by Keir Starmer was described as a step in the right direction. A step is not a transformation.

Hardly America turning on its staunch ally, this is America refusing to keep pretending. Trump’s administration is trying to force misguided leaders to do what the British people have long demanded for themselves.

Because he cares about Britain and the West, he is applying pressure where polite communiqués and alliance summits failed. NATO 3.0 means European allies, must take primary responsibility for conventional defence on your own continent. The United States will still be the ultimate backstop. It will no longer underwrite chronic underinvestment with a smile and a joint statement.

Consider what is coming. Andy Burnham and John Healey’s first Budget is not expected to lock in 3 per cent of GDP by 2030. When Healey left the Ministry of Defence he said the Prime Minister was “unable” and the Treasury “unwilling” to spend what was required to defend the country.

That is the problem in a single sentence. The same political machine that can always locate money for its preferred social projects cannot locate the will to fund the Navy, the Army and the stocks that would make sovereignty real.

The Falklands remain British because the islanders chose Britain and because a Conservative government in 1982 had the nerve to prove it. Margaret Thatcher did not wait for permission. She understood that sovereignty is not a press release.

It is ships, aircraft, trained people, munitions and the industrial capacity to replace what is used. If Britain wants the world to treat those islands as unambiguously yours, the UK must be able to defend them without assuming an American carrier group will always appear on the horizon.

Washington still sees Britain as a country that could lead among European allies. It is offering defence-industrial cooperation and partnership to those who show they are serious.

The review now under way will decide troop numbers, locations and the pace of any American adjustment in Europe. Allies who buy American kit, keep bases usable and support the wider strategy will be prioritised.

The furthest thing from punishment, this is how a superpower facing China, Russia and a dozen other pressures allocates scarce attention.

Trump is not asking Britain to become a client state. He is asking Britain to become a capable partner again. For a country that still talks about itself as a serious nation, that should be received as a service, not an insult. The Falkland Islanders deserve a Britain that can protect them. The British public deserves a government that puts defence before gesture politics.