President Trump
Donald John TrumpThe ambassador’s cables and the Tory election Trump to give speech on ‘America’s environmental leadership’ NY governor signs bill allowing Congress to obtain Trump’s state tax returns MORE on Monday said he would “no longer deal with” the U.K.’s ambassador to the U.S. after leaked cables revealed the diplomat’s blunt assessment of the Trump administration.
“I do not know the Ambassador, but he is not liked or well thought of within the U.S. We will no longer deal with him,” Trump tweeted, referring to Kim Darroch.
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The British embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Even as Trump bristled at being criticized in secret diplomatic notes, he went after outgoing British Prime Minister Theresa May
Theresa Mary MayThe ambassador’s cables and the Tory election British government searching for source of leaked cables criticizing Trump Pro-Brexit UK lawmakers protest EU anthem at European parliament MORE, who expressed “full faith” in Darroch, over her handling of Brexit.
“What a mess she and her representatives have created. I told her how it should be done, but she decided to go another way,” Trump wrote, adding that “the good news for the wonderful United Kingdom is that they will soon have a new Prime Minister.”
….thought of within the U.S. We will no longer deal with him. The good news for the wonderful United Kingdom is that they will soon have a new Prime Minister. While I thoroughly enjoyed the magnificent State Visit last month, it was the Queen who I was most impressed with!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 8, 2019
Darroch wrote in secret cables to top officials in London that Trump is viewed as “insecure” and “incompetent.” He said there are doubts in Washington about whether the White House “is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional, less unpredictable, less faction-riven, less diplomatically clumsy and inept.”
The British government has expressed regret to Trump administration officials for the leak.
Asked Sunday about the cables, Trump told reporters that Darroch “has not served the U.K.” and added that “we’re not big fans of that man.
“I can say things about him, but I won’t bother,” he added.
The cables were published by U.K. newspaper The Mail on Sunday, providing fresh evidence of strains in the so-called “special relationship” between the U.S. and U.K. during Trump’s presidency.
Trump has repeatedly criticized May’s handling of the U.K.’s divorce from the European Union, the issue that forced her resignation. The president also broke diplomatic protocol ahead of his state visit there by weighing in on the race to replace May, saying the front-runner Boris Johnson would make an “excellent” Conservative Party leader.
—Updated at 3:17 p.m.
