I've been reading a discussion on Reddit with people who seem to know a lot more about this. The US were totally on board throughout. It is just a stupid game from Trump. Basically, saying what I have said all along i.e. there is absolutely no chance that two different US administrations would let us deal with one of their most important military and intelligence assets without them being in charge of the process every step of the way. One of the reasons is that it suits them for the base to be extra territorial; think rendition.
Guantanamo?, I read something similar on Mumsnet.
