The State Department sees no need for British Prime Minister Theresa May to accept President-elect Trump’s recommendation that she appoint a new ambassador to the United States.
“We have a great relationship with the U.K. ambassador to the United States and I think, again, I’m just going to leave it at that,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
Trump ruffled feathers overseas when he tweeted his praise for Nigel Farage, the leader of the populist UK Independence Party who praised Trump throughout the presidential election. “Many people would like to see [Farage] represent Great Britain as their Ambassador to the United States,” Trump tweeted in the midst of missives about his own prospective Cabinet. “He would do a great job!”
U.K. officials, even those who supported the British vote to exit the European Union that Trump hailed as an analog to his own campaign, rebuffed the suggestion promptly. “We have first rate ambassador in Washington,” said Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. “There is no vacancy for that position.”
Farage is unhappy with that treatment, which he portrayed as a sign that political leaders who favored remaining in the EU have too much power in the U.K. “In the United Kingdom the people have spoken but the players at the top have, I am afraid, stayed the same,” Farage said. “It is career politics at its worst and it is now getting in the way of the national interest.”
Kirby struck a balance between praising the current U.K. ambassador, Kim Darroch, while avoiding an overt suggestion that Trump was wrong to make his comments. “I wouldn’t characterize our reaction one way or the other to the comment,” he said. “Obviously, the decision of who becomes ambassador belongs to the country appointing and, again, I think they’ve spoken to that.”
