United States President Donald Trump on Monday said that the White House will no longer deal with British Ambassador Kim Darroch after a series of leaked diplomatic cables revealed that he had described the Trump administration as “inept and clumsy”, CNN reported.
Trump also attacked Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May. “I have been very critical about the way the UK and Prime Minister Theresa May handled Brexit,” Trump tweeted. “What a mess she and her representatives have created. I told her how it should be done, but she decided to go another way. 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.”
In the cables leaked to British newspaper Daily Mail, Darroch had cautioned the United Kingdom government that “Trump’s career could end in disgrace”. He also described disputes within the administration as “knife fights” in the communications that occurred between 2017 and 2019. “We don’t really believe this administration is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional; less unpredictable; less faction-riven; less diplomatically clumsy and inept,” The Guardian quoted the leaked memos as saying.
Downing Street, however, has extended its “full support” to the United Kingdom ambassador despite Trump’s remarks about not working with him.
Officials in the two countries have been in touch ever since the cables were leaked.
British authorities have called the leak of diplomatic cables unfortunate and said that the two countries still share a “special and enduring” relationship. The spokesperson also said that ambassadors were required to provide honest assessments of the politics in their respective countries.
Darroch may have been uninvited from a dinner with Trump and the Emir of Qatar, CNN quoted unidentified officials as saying. “We have made clear to the US how unfortunate this leak is,” BBC quoted a White House spokesperson as saying. “The selective extracts leaked do not reflect the closeness of, and the esteem in which we hold, the relationship.”
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who is one of the next British prime ministerial candidates, said that he did not share Darroch’s views, but it was important for United Kingdom diplomats to “continue to give us their frank assessments”, CNN reported. Hunt also said that there would be an investigation to figure out how the leak occurred and added that there would be “very serious consequences” for those responsible.
The UK government is investigating who leaked the memos and has so far resisted demands that the police be involved, according to The Guardian.
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