Trump claims Andy Burnham will fully open North Sea oil for the UK

Trump in a Truth Social post, the president said Aberdeen residents were celebrating and urged Britain to remove windmills near the city, while calling North Sea oil one of the greatest sources on Earth.

First Published: July 19, 2026, 6:20 AM ET

WASHINGTON D.C. — Donald Trump claimed that Britain’s new prime minister would fully reopen North Sea oil drilling.

Here is the full post on truthsocial: “The People of Aberdeen, in Scotland, are dancing in the streets because the new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has stated that he will be opening up, all the way, the invaluable North Sea Oil! It is one of the Greatest Sources of quality Oil on Earth, has hundreds of years of Capacity left, with much not even found yet, and will make the United Kingdom, from a Poverty Stricken Disaster, to one of the Richest Countries anywhere in the World! Britain pays Norway Billions of Dollars a year to buy its Oil, which they get from a less valuable part of the North Sea — How ridiculous is that! Also, word is that the UK is going to move the old and horrible looking windmills, which loom over and destroy the City of Aberdeen. That will be a big day for the Country, and will be very much appreciated by everybody. Such great potential in the UK, but it all starts with OPENING NORTH SEA OIL. WE LOVE YOU SCOTLAND! Trump”

The post named Andy Burnham as the new prime minister. Burnham serves as mayor of Greater Manchester and does not hold that office. Trump described Aberdeen, a port city on Scotland’s northeast coast long tied to the offshore energy industry, as celebrating the prospect of expanded drilling. He said the field held hundreds of years of capacity and that fuller extraction would make the United Kingdom one of the world’s richest countries.

The stakes fall on Scotland’s energy sector and on households across Britain. Producers, oilfield workers, and Aberdeen’s service economy would gain from expanded licensing, while environmental groups and offshore wind developers would lose ground. Trump singled out wind turbines near Aberdeen and urged their removal, a position that runs against the current British push toward renewable generation.

The claim about payments to Norway reflects long-standing trade patterns. Norway, one of Western Europe’s largest oil and gas exporters, supplies a substantial share of Britain’s imported gas, and the two countries share the North Sea basin. Trump framed those purchases as wasteful and argued that Britain sits atop a more valuable portion of the same waters.

Has this happened before? Yes. Trump has repeatedly urged Britain to expand North Sea drilling and remove wind turbines, including public statements tied to his golf resorts in Aberdeenshire. He has fought planning battles over offshore wind farms there for more than a decade, and his opposition to turbines near his Scottish properties dates to legal challenges he lost in the United Kingdom’s courts.

The next move rests with the British government, which sets licensing policy for the North Sea, and with Scottish authorities on planning matters. No date for any policy change described in the post has been announced.

Trump’s affection for Scotland is not new, and it reaches back through his own family. His mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, was born on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides in 1912 before emigrating to New York. He has cited that lineage in explaining his investments in Scottish golf courses at Turnberry and Aberdeenshire. Those ventures drew years of local disputes over land, dunes, and the very turbines he now wants removed, leaving a record of friction between the developer and the communities he praised.