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Trump Tells GB News He Can’t Get Through to Burnham on Key Issue

President Trump urged British Prime Minister Andy Burnham to open up North Sea oil drilling, claiming it could make the UK as wealthy as Norway and criticizing Britain's reliance on wind energy.

Eleni Papadaki-Van Der Merwe Staff Writer

JULY 30, 2026 AT 8:50 AM

Speaking to the conservative news channel, President Trump revealed that Burnham had personally assured him he would open up the North Sea to energy extraction, according to Peter Stevens writing in GB News.

If he does that, you’re going to be a wealthy country if he does it reasonably, the President stated when asked about Britain’s economic future.

The Commander-in-Chief has consistently pushed British leadership to exploit offshore oil reserves near Scotland, a position he maintained throughout his dealings with former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. Trump offered a harsh assessment of Britain’s current energy strategy under Burnham’s leadership.

“He’s got energy problems,” Trump said of the Prime Minister. “He’s got windmills all over the place. And any time you see windmills, you see a failing country.”

Earlier this month, the President celebrated rumours that Burnham would greenlight North Sea drilling, claiming residents of Aberdeen were “dancing in the streets” and predicting the removal of what he called the “old and horrible looking windmills” dotting the Scottish landscape.

The day before Burnham succeeded Sir Keir in office, Trump urged the Makerfield MP to transform the United Kingdom “from a poverty stricken disaster, to one of the richest countries anywhere in the world”.

In his latest remarks on Wednesday, Trump drew comparisons between Britain’s untapped potential and Norway’s vast sovereign wealth, built on North Sea oil revenues. He suggested drilling could make the UK a “really rich country” with “trillions of dollars in the bank” similar to the Scandinavian nation.

“You have one of the most valuable oil finds anywhere in the world,” Trump emphasised. “And if the United Kingdom would use it, they’d be a wealthy country again.”

The issue represented a persistent point of friction between Sir Keir and President Trump during the former’s tenure, with Trump consistently advocating for expanded fossil fuel extraction while Labour pursued renewable energy policies.

With information from GB News

Eleni Papadaki-Van Der Merwe

She was born in 1986 in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is the granddaughter of an immigrant from Crete who settled in the Greek community of Johannesburg (one of the largest in Africa). She holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Political Science from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg and a master’s degree in Journalism from Rhodes University in Grahamstown. She began her career at English-language media outlets in Johannesburg, covering politics and economics, with a focus on issues related to migration and the diaspora. She moved to Athens in 2015 to “return to her roots,” initially to pursue graduate studies, and has remained there permanently. She is married to an Afrikaner; they have two children and live in the southern suburbs of Athens.