President Trump said his administration will give the United Kingdom’s ambassador to the U.S. the cold shoulder after the ambassador called Trump “inept” and “incompetent” in leaked diplomatic cables.
“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 said of British Ambassador Kim Darroch.
….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
In the cables published by the Daily Mail on Saturday, Darroch said Trump’s “career could end in disgrace.”
“For a man who has risen to the highest office on the planet, President Trump radiates insecurity,” he also wrote.
Darroch has been in the post since January 2016 and was expected to leave Washington, D.C., at the end of the year, though that timing could be sped up, given the circumstances.
Several members of the British government expressed regret that the comments became public.
“Contact has been made with the Trump administration, setting out our view that we believe the leak is unacceptable,” a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May told reporters Monday. “It is, of course, a matter of regret that this has happened.”
The spokesman said the government still has “full faith” in Darroch.
Trade Minister Liam Fox said he planned to apologize to Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and White House adviser.
“I will be apologizing for the fact that either our civil service or elements of our political class have not lived up to the expectations that either we have or the United States has about their behavior, which in this particular case has lapsed in a most extraordinary and unacceptable way,” Fox said.
