Trump: 'We Will No Longer Deal With' British Ambassador

He slams Theresa May for making a 'mess' of Brexit
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 9, 2019 3:21 AM CDT
Trump: 'We Will No Longer Deal With' British Ambassador
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May and President Trump arrive to take part in a joint press conference at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, in London, Tuesday June 4, 2019.   (Stefan Rousseau/Pool via AP)

"We will no longer deal with" British ambassador to the US Kim Darroch, President Trump said Monday, stepping up the diplomatic feud over the ambassador's leaked remarks about his administration. Trump tweeted his own criticism of Britain's leadership, saying Prime Minister Theresa May had handled Brexit badly, CNN reports. "What a mess she and her representatives have created," he said. "I told her how it should be done, but she decided to go another way." Darroch, he said, "is not liked or well thought of within the US. We will no longer deal with him." He added: "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."

In the leaked cables, Darroch slammed the Trump administration as "inept" and "uniquely dysfunctional." The British government described the leak as "unfortunate," but said it was standing by Darroch and his right to send back "honest, unvarnished assessments" of the situation in Washington, the New York Times reports. It's not clear, however, if the ambassador will be able to stay on after Trump's threat—or whether the president plans to formally declare Darroch persona non grata. "This all presents the British government with an awkward dilemma—to buckle under US pressure and bring Sir Kim home, risking accusations of abject weakness, or to stand firm and defend their ambassador for doing his job and telling the truth as he sees it, risking even further damage to the UK-US relationship," says BBC diplomatic correspondent James Landale. (More United Kingdom stories.)

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