Nuclear Subs in Europe, Ridicule in Beijing: Inside Donald Trump's Chaotic Week of Foreign Policy

A US nuclear-armed submarine believed to be USS Alaska docked at the British naval base in Gibraltar on 10 May, placing the UK 'at risk' as Donald Trump uses the deployment to threaten Iran, according to a British security expert. Professor Anthony Glees, an intelligence and defence specialist at the University of Buckingham, argued the move was part of a deliberate attempt by Trump to intimidate Tehran with the presence of a ballistic missile submarine in range of Iranian targets.

The submarine's arrival in Gibraltar came amid Trump's wider push to confront Iran and wind down what he has called his 'stupid and failed war with Israel against Iran.' The US president has repeatedly signalled he wants a new deal with Tehran, and he appears to be leaning on high‑profile military signalling rather than quiet diplomacy. The choice of Gibraltar is not incidental. It is a British Overseas Territory, home to a strategically important Royal Navy base, and well within the envelope of any escalation involving Iran and its network of allied groups.

Nuclear Subs Used as Theatre for Iran Gamble

Glees told the Daily Star that Trump's decision to send a nuclear-armed submarine into European waters is less about operational necessity and more about showmanship. He said he believed the docking 'puts Britain at risk,' arguing that while the intended audience is Iran's leadership, the geography means UK territory is intrinsically caught up in the gambit.

'The USA has 71 subs, all nuclear powered but not all nuclear armed, so the choice of the USS Alaska is really key to what Trump and Hegseth are doing right now,' Glees said, referring to Pete Hegseth, the conservative commentator and Trump ally who has been urging a tougher posture towards Iran.

In his assessment, the deployment is designed to send a personal message to Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and to the remaining ayatollahs. Glees characterises it as a 'cut‑throat threat' aimed at pushing them into a deal that would let Trump declare victory and exit the confrontation with Iran on his own terms.

He reaches for a cinematic metaphor: the presence of the submarine, he suggests, is a 'horse's head' on the pillow of Iran's Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who is sometimes referred to in Western commentary as 'the invisible man.' It is intended to be menacing, not subtle.

Yet the same expert is openly sceptical that this brand of nuclear theatre will achieve its goal. 'Will it work? Absolutely not,' Glees said. In his view, neither Washington nor Tehran seriously contemplates an actual nuclear exchange, however dramatic the rhetoric. 'No one with half a brain (so including Trump and Hegseth) think the USA is going to nuke Iran any more than anyone thinks Iran is going to try to nuke the USA,' he added.

That leaves the UK, and specifically Gibraltar, in an awkward position. Hosting a US ballistic missile submarine may be standard fare within NATO circles, but doing so at a moment of heightened tension with Iran inevitably raises questions about whether British territory is being used as a stage prop in someone else's confrontation.

The Ministry of Defence has not publicly commented on the specific deployment of USS Alaska. There has been no official acknowledgement that the submarine's visit was linked to pressure on Iran, so any direct connection between Trump's statements and the vessel's movements remains unconfirmed.

Ridicule as 'Trump the Country Builder' Trends

While Trump leans on nuclear subs in Europe to project strength towards Iran, in Beijing he is being greeted with something closer to mockery. As his plane touched down in the Chinese capital this week for a high‑profile visit and meeting with Xi Jinping, Chinese social media users were busy popularising a new nickname for the US president.

The phrase 'Chuan Jianguo,' which roughly translates as 'Trump the Country Builder,' has taken off on platforms such as Weibo. On the surface it sounds almost admiring, but users employ it with a pointed, sarcastic edge. The suggestion is that Trump's combative foreign policy has, in practice, helped 'build' China's strength relative to the United States, pushing allies away from Washington and creating space for Beijing on the global stage.

Despite the underlying ridicule, the hashtag '#WelcomeTrumpToChina' rose to the top of Weibo's trending topics as his visit got under way. State media has presented an elaborate ceremonial welcome, complete with the kind of pageantry Chinese leaders traditionally reserve for guests they want to flatter.

Reports from inside China describe a divided public response. Some users echo the official line, stressing the importance of stable US‑China ties, while others share memes and comments that cast Trump as blundering, volatile or oddly useful to Beijing's long‑term ambitions. The 'Country Builder' label neatly captures that ambivalence: a leader derided for his unpredictability, yet also credited, half-jokingly, with accelerating China's rise.

If Trump sees any contradiction between being mocked in Beijing and brandishing nuclear submarines off Gibraltar, he has not shown it. For now, Britain finds itself uncomfortably close to the hard edge of his Iran strategy, while watching from the sidelines as China turns that same foreign policy into a punchline.