Trump Praises Burnham on North Sea Oil After UK Ambassador Presses New PM on AUKUS Funding

Andy Burnham became UK Prime Minister on Monday, July 20, and within hours he had two separate messages landing on his desk from Washington.

The first came from U.S. Ambassador to the UK Warren Stephens, who wrote directly to Burnham in an op-ed for The Times of London. Stephens' message: fund the AUKUS nuclear submarine program, and do it now, not later. The joint U.S.-UK-Australia project is meant to put nuclear-powered submarines permanently in Australia and build a new Anglo-Australian submarine class down the line. Stephens didn't name former Prime Minister Keir Starmer directly, but the shot was obvious given Starmer's defence record, including a defence minister's resignation and reports of senior defence officials going AWOL in frustration, according to Breitbart. Stephens wrote that alliances only mean something when backed by "sustained investments" and warned against Britain "backloading" its defence spending.

The second message came from Trump himself, on Truth Social, and it's more complicated.

Trump praised Burnham for "stating" he would "open up all the way" North Sea oil, according to the Daily Express. There's one problem: Burnham hasn't said that. The Express reports plainly that "the incoming Labour leader has not yet made such a commitment." Burnham has said he'll review whether North Sea oil and gas could play a bigger role in Britain's energy mix, and Newsweek reports he may push regulators to unstick two already-approved projects, the Jackdaw gas field and the Rosebank oil and gas field, both currently tied up in legal review. That's a real, if narrow, shift. It is not "opening up all the way."

Trump's post went further than the oil claim. He called Britain a "poverty-stricken disaster" with the potential to become "one of the Richest Countries anywhere in the World," according to the Express. He claimed Aberdeen residents were "dancing in the streets" over Burnham's position, said Britain pays Norway "Billions of Dollars a year" for oil from what he called "a less valuable part of the North Sea," and claimed "word is" the UK plans to tear down wind turbines near Aberdeen. Trump gave no source for that wind turbine claim and no evidence for the "dancing in the streets" line. Ukrainian outlet UNN, citing The Telegraph, reported the more measured version of events: Trump welcomed Burnham's plan to accelerate already-approved fields rather than issue new licenses, which is a narrower claim than what Trump posted publicly.

If Burnham has, in fact, only committed to reviewing existing approved projects, Trump's Truth Social claim that he'll open the North Sea "all the way" is either an exaggeration or Trump getting ahead of a decision Burnham hasn't made. Reasonable people can read this as Trump trying to lock Burnham into a policy commitment by publicly declaring it already made. That's a legitimate way to read a president who has spent months hammering Starmer's government over its refusal to issue new North Sea licenses and who has said oil companies contacted him directly about expanding operations there, per the Express.

On the defence side, Ambassador Stephens is asking for something specific. Britain's Defence Investment Plan was unveiled by the outgoing government weeks before Burnham took office, laying out how the UK would meet NATO spending commitments, according to Newsweek. But Burnham's domestic platform, built around raising living standards, devolving power from London, social care reform, and what Newsweek describes as the biggest council house-building program since World War II, all costs money Trump wants redirected toward defence.

Burnham is the UK's fifth prime minister in four years and lacks a personal electoral mandate, having been installed by his party rather than chosen directly by voters in a general election, according to Newsweek. Trump reportedly called him "extremely liberal" and dismissed him as a mere "mayor of a town" before he even took office.

Burnham has pledged to keep Labour's 2024 manifesto commitment against issuing brand-new North Sea licenses, according to the Express, while leaving the door open on accelerating projects already approved under the previous Conservative government. Whether that satisfies Trump, who's now telling the world Burnham promised to "open it all the way," is the question Downing Street will have to answer soon. So far, Burnham has not publicly corrected Trump's characterization of his position.