The Trump administration should maintain its de facto recognition of the United Kingdom’s sovereignty over the Falkland Islands. Doing otherwise would cause serious and enduring populist offense with no obvious gain to otherwise legitimate American concerns over the special relationship.

The point bears noting amid accurate Reuters reporting that the Pentagon has provided options to President Donald Trump with which to penalize European allies over their complication of U.S. military action against Iran. Notwithstanding Trump’s idiotic insults to the U.K. and other allies such as Denmark over the sacrifice of their troops in Afghanistan (and Denmark suffered a dual insult via Trump’s threats to Greenland), the U.K. and other European allies have recently let down the U.S.