{"id":3284,"date":"2026-04-01T12:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T12:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/3284\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T12:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T12:53:10","slug":"uk-security-officials-have-started-withholding-intelligence-from-us-due-to-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/3284\/","title":{"rendered":"UK security officials have started withholding intelligence from US due to Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump\u2019s chaotic foreign policy and repeated criticism of Sir Keir Starmer<\/a> has left Whitehall officials feeling they can no longer trust their longest and closest ally, The i Paper has been told.<\/p>\n

A decades-long intelligence relationship has been plunged into uncertainty after Washington\u2019s threats to Greenland, its ambition to interfere in European politics and public outrage over Britain\u2019s refusal to join the US war with Iran.<\/p>\n

Repeated misfires on the world stage have seen the US President disparage the role of Britain\u2019s Armed Forces in previous joint wars and launch personal attacks on Starmer, labelling him \u201cno Churchill\u201d.<\/p>\n

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The impact has reverberated through the halls of Whitehall and UK intelligence.<\/p>\n

A Foreign Office source told The i Paper that the White House\u2019s \u201cAmerica First\u201d approach showed Trump had \u201cno compulsion about screwing over allies\u201d and stated that the UK simply \u201ccannot trust\u201d the current administration.<\/p>\n

American officials seconded to UK Government departments are now being asked to leave meetings which discuss sensitive information, according to the Financial Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A UK intelligence source described the move as \u201ctit for tat\u201d, meaning that any attempts to protect UK intelligence are only in response to similar hostilities from the US.<\/p>\n

John Foreman, the UK\u2019s Defence Attach\u00e9 to Moscow until 2022, said that \u201ctrust once gone is hard to restore\u201d.<\/p>\n

He told The i Paper: \u201cIf the US aren\u2019t willing to ensure that UK secrets remain classified, then restrictions will have to be put in place. But [this is] hard when intelligence sharing is so deep and wide.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more than 70 years, the special relationship between Britain and America has been a cornerstone of the Western alliance, with intelligence and military officials working together to combat all manner of threats, from direct war to clandestine operations.<\/p>\n

But building tensions across the Atlantic have spilt over into public US criticism of the UK\u2019s delayed approval for American aircraft to use British military sites to launch strikes on Iran.<\/p>\n

The US President previously branded Starmer as a leader who has tried to \u201cjoin wars after we\u2019ve already won\u201d. In a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump said that \u201ccountries that can not get jet fuel\u201d and refused to join the strikes against Iran, like the \u201cUnited Kingdom\u201d, should stop relying on the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe U.S.A. won\u2019t be there to help you anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Tensions and distrust\u2019 between allies<\/p>\n

The latest insults thrown across the Atlantic come after a tumultuous few months for the so-called special relationship.<\/p>\n

On Trump\u2019s arrival at the White House last year, UK intelligence officials sought assurances on the way intelligence<\/a> would be used and disseminated by US counterparts amid concern over Trump\u2019s foreign policy.<\/p>\n

The open sharing of intelligence between the two countries dates back to the secret 1941 Sinkov Mission, which involved the exchange of information on Japanese and German ciphers at Bletchley Park before the US officially entered the Second World War.<\/p>\n

Since then, the US and UK continue to share intelligence through the UKUSA Agreement, often referred to as \u201cTwo Eyes\u201d, and the Five Eyes intelligence alliance involving Australia, Canada and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

However, a growing assessment of the current \u201cTwo Eyes\u201d relationship has left UK officials feeling that they are viewed by Washington as \u201cjust part of Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n

During Trump\u2019s threats to take over Greenland and his reluctance to rule out military force, strain was placed on other long-standing allied agreements.<\/p>\n

A senior Nato insider told The i Paper at the time that the US President\u2019s moves were \u201ccreating tensions and distrust\u201d between European and US colleagues in the alliance.<\/p>\n

The source, who wished to remain anonymous, said staff are \u201cnot talking openly\u201d anymore amid growing concerns that information will make its way back to Trump and could be used in an attempt to take Greenland by force.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to get beers together, but now it\u2019s really strange. I have been fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan side-by-side with Americans,\u201d they said. \u201cThis is very disruptive in a way that I have never thought of before because it is so unrealistic and surprising.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitehall\u2019s reticence of US counterparts was highlighted last week in a Government-issued report into foreign interference.<\/p>\n

The review\u2019s author, former civil servant Phillip Rycroft said warned of new threats stemming from allies \u2013 namely the US.<\/p>\n

The report made a bold reference to the US national security strategy, which, earlier this year, stated Washington\u2019s intention to interfere in European politics and oppose what it termed as \u201celite-driven, anti-democratic restrictions on core liberties in Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am also cognisant of a potential new threat\u201d, the report stated. \u201cAn emerging willingness of foreign actors and private citizens, including from allies like the United States, to interfere in, and influence, politics abroad in pursuit of their own agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Starmer looks to paper over any remaining relationship with the White House, Buckingham Palace announced King Charles would be making a state visit<\/a> to the US in late April.<\/p>\n

Seeking to capitalise on Trump\u2019s affection towards the British monarchy, the King will embark on a long-planned trip to mark the 250th anniversary of America\u2019s independence from British rule.<\/p>\n

A Government spokesperson said:\u00a0\u201cThe US is our principal\u00a0defence and security\u00a0partner and we continue deep cooperation in the national interest.\u00a0This includes the US operating from British bases as they have done for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump\u2019s chaotic foreign policy and repeated criticism of Sir Keir Starmer has left Whitehall officials feeling they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[361,2151,597,24,94,1573,5,6,37],"class_list":{"0":"post-3284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-greenland","10":"tag-intelligence","11":"tag-iran","12":"tag-keir-starmer","13":"tag-special-relationship","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}