ToplinePresident Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Britain’s energy policies and called on the country to expand drilling in the North Sea as the global supply of oil continues to be disrupted by a war in Iran started by the U.S. and Israel nearly two months ago. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer en route to Scotland on July 28, 2025.Getty ImagesKey FactsTrump posted to Truth Social calling the U.K. "absolutely crazy" for not drilling more in the North Sea and said Aberdeen in Scotland, the U.K.'s North Sea oil and gas industry hub, “should be booming.” He said Europe is “desperate for Energy” as the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East, through which more than 20% of the world’s crude oil flows, remains closed and gas prices rise all over the globe. Trump wants European nations to drill more oil immediately in an attempt to lower global prices and weaken Iran's position in the ongoing war, but U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has instead said the world's dependence on oil is a problem the conflict has highlighted, and that producing more isn’t a long-term solution. Rather than drill more, Starmer this month said nations should work to reduce their reliance on oil, invest in green energy and get out from under an industry “controlled” by countries like Russia and Iran.The post Tuesday is just the latest attack on the UK's energy policies from Trump, who last summer called the North Sea a "treasure chest" Britain refused to open and told the government to “drill, baby, drill” during a state visit to Belgium in September. Trump has been slamming U.K. energy policies for decades, first feuding with Scotland over wind farms near his golf course in the country and later moving on to criticize the country's strict environmental rules, high taxes on oil companies and refusal to expand North Sea drilling. Crucial Quote“I told it to him three days in a row. That’s all he heard: ‘North Sea oil, North Sea,’” Trump said, describing how he harassed Starmer to reduce oil regulations during a state visit last year. Key BackgroundThe U.K. is the second-largest driller in the North Sea behind Norway, which exports almost all of its oil to the European Union and Britain and, at the moment, provides about 30% of European oil according to the New York Times. The extraction of oil and gas from the North Sea boomed in the 1980s and 90s, but output has steadily fallen since. Last year, the U.K. banned new licences for new oil and gas fields in the North Sea, making it all but impossible to expand drilling as Trump is demanding. U.K. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband recently echoed Starmer’s sentiments that more oil is not the answer, telling the BBC "we need home-grown, clean power that we control.” The country's offshore energy industry, however, has warned that the U.K. "urgently" needs to step up its oil and gas production or it will risk becoming entirely reliant on imports and vulnerable to price jumps. Big Number93%. That's how much of the oil and gas that is likely to be produced from the North Sea has already been extracted, according to U.K. oil and gas statistics and projections. Government data shows that 4.1 billion tons of oil has been extracted in the UK since 1975.TangentTrump ended his post on Tuesday by writing “AND, NO MORE WINDMILLS!” in another attack on the wind energy industry, which he has long slammed. In the 2000s he bought land in Aberdeenshire, Scotland to build a golf resort when plans then emerged for an offshore windfarm nearby. He sued to block the project, saying the turbines would destroy the landscape, and lost several times in court. Today, 11 turbines are visible from the course. In his 2016 presidential campaign, wind became a major talking point and he has since called turbines expensive, unreliable, harmful to wildlife and, in one widely panned false accusation, said the noise from turbines causes cancer. He has continued his opposition for the last decade, in August posting a rant online about New Jersey’s “STUPID AND UGLY WINDMILLS” and last year said the U.K.’s expansion of wind energy infrastructure was “a very big mistake.”Further ReadingForbesIran War Shock Will Trigger Sharpest Drop In Global Oil Demand Since Covid-19, IEA SaysBy Siladitya RayForbesCritical Global Oil Price Reaches Highest Price On RecordBy Zachary FolkForbesEconomic Costs From Oil And Gas Burning Today Will Hit Future HarderBy Nick Nuttall