President Donald Trump excoriated the British government in a Truth Social post on Monday for agreeing to relinquish sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, a strategic military location, to Mauritius.

The Chagos Islands contain the Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, a military base leased by the U.K. to the U.S. and used jointly by both countries. Located in the center of the Indian Ocean, the islands are considered strategically valuable.

“Shockingly, our ‘brilliant’ NATO Ally, the United Kingdom, is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital U.S. Military Base, to Mauritius, and to do so FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER,” Trump said in the post.

Brent Sadler, a senior fellow for naval warfare and advanced technology at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal that Trump was right to oppose the Chagos deal for strategic reasons.

“President Trump is keenly aware of the military and strategic implications of losing unfettered access and unencumbered by nearby Chinese presence of the base at Diego Garcia,” Sadler wrote in an email.

“While a deal over Chagos which includes Diego Garcia is still a possibility, it is clear the one being proposed in London is not THAT deal,” he said.

The........

© The Daily Signal