UNITED NATIONS — President Donald Trump is not happy with some top U.S. allies’ decision to recognize a Palestinian state at this week’s U.N. General Assembly, and rebuked them in New York for what he described as a “reward” for acts of terrorism by Hamas.

But the administration is not yet matching that rhetoric with action, seemingly freeing allies to deliver a symbolic rebuke of Israel without risk of punishment from the United States.

Top officials in both the United Kingdom and Canada told POLITICO there was scant private pushback from the Trump administration on those countries for embracing Palestinian statehood. In Britain, Trump’s restrained public comments over the summer on the prospect of diplomatic recognition even helped solidify Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s plans to move ahead, according to one senior U.K. official. (“I don’t mind him taking a position,” Trump said of Starmer in July.)

Trump officials have responded to the coordinated recognition of Palestine by Britain, France, Saudi Arabia, Canada and Australia by belittling it as a “performance” (in the words of U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz) and a “vanity project” (according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.) They have chosen to treat recognition as an activist show, rather than a menace that must be thwarted by expending diplomatic and political capital.

The Israeli government has denounced the move to recognize Palestine in forceful terms. Yet in the absence of sterner admonitions from Washington — and from Trump himself — U.S. allies have interpreted American derision as a kind of free pass to act.

A senior Canadian government official, who briefed journalists in advance of announcing that Canada would recognize Palestine, said Trump had not raised the issue recently with Prime Minister Mark Carney.

“Our policies, our direction, are well understood by our U.S. colleagues and counterparts. They understand the rationale that is behind it,” said the Canadian official, who like others in this story was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive decision-making.

A senior U.K. official described Trump’s seeming ambivalence about Palestinian statehood as an encouraging dynamic for Starmer. This official recalled Trump’s visit to Scotland in July, when he was asked about Starmer’s intention to recognize a Palestinian state. Trump’s shrugging response to the question gave the British government some impetus to move ahead, this official said, since the U.S. president did not seem inclined to retaliate. The remark was “a big moment” for the Starmer team’s thinking, this official said, and came at a time when the prime minister was facing an outcry within his own party about the war in Gaza.

In his speech to world leaders at the U.N. on Tuesday, Trump accused those recognizing Palestinian statehood of offering Hamas a “reward” for acts including the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks against Israel, and said they were not prioritizing the release of the remaining Israeli hostages in Hamas custody. But he stopped short of threatening any consequences for the move.

Where Trump has been indifferent, top administration officials have generally reacted with dismissiveness. Rubio said in a Tuesday interview with CBS that the efforts are “almost a vanity project for a couple of these world leaders who want to be relevant, but it really makes no difference.”

At a hearing of the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, Waltz derided the “performance” and criticized the U.N. for convening a meeting about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah.

Washington and Israel had vowed to respond forcefully to the move, which was expected as the gathering in New York approached. Last week, Republican lawmakers wrote to the leaders of Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom, warning them that the recognition of a Palestinian state “may invite punitive measures” as a response. Israel has also warned the countries that recognized a Palestinian state that they risked alienating domestic Jewish constituencies.

Some of those threats came from Trump himself. In July, shortly after Carney announced Canada’s intention to recognize the Palestinian state, Trump said the issue might make it difficult for Canada and the U.S. to strike a deal.

But there’ve been no suggestions of concrete actions the administration might take. And multiple allies have implied that the U.S. didn’t try to convince them to change their plans.

French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview Sunday with CBS that “we had many exchange with” people close to the president, including special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, about recognizing a Palestinian state.

Of course, Israel has vowed to pursue tougher measures against Palestinians as a response to the recognition. The Israeli government threatened to annex more territory in the West Bank in retaliation against the move at the United Nations.

The United States also revoked the visas of top Palestinian officials, arguing Palestinian Authority and Palestinian Liberation Organization members failed to comply with U.S. law by allegedly maintaining ties to terrorist groups.

Yet, people familiar with the thinking within the Israeli and American governments acknowledged that recognition doesn’t meaningfully change the state of the fight against Hamas.

“Recognition has not changed the reality on the ground. It has not brought us closer to the establishment of a Palestinian state,” said a person familiar with the Israeli government’s thinking, who went on to reiterate Israel’s position that recognition would embolden Hamas.

The countries are unlikely to walk back their positions absent real pressure. Carney on Tuesday said he wasn’t worried about any blowback from the White House, arguing “we have the best trade deal of any country in the world.” He also reiterated at an event in New York that “we have an independent foreign policy. We make decisions that are consistent with our values.”

Macron and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also downplayed any impact the recognitions may have on their relations with the United States in interviews this week.

An official from one of the countries that recognized a Palestinian state this week acknowledged that when it comes to U.S. retaliation, nothing can be ruled out, but argued that punitive measures would make little sense.

“More than 140 countries already recognize Palestine,” the official said. “Would all these countries be punished?”

Mike Blanchfield, Nicholas Vinocur and Daniella Cheslow contributed to this report.