Trump White House ‘inept’, plagued by infighting: British ambassador

The British ambassador to Washington has called the Trump administration “clumsy” and “inept” and said the US president radiated “insecurity” in a series of memos leaked to the Mail on Sunday newspaper.   

The briefing notes, which cover the period 2017 to the present, were written by Kim Darroch and could cause considerable embarrassment to London as it attempts to woo President Donald Trump and secure a post-Brexit trade deal.   

The Foreign Office did not deny the authenticity of the memos, saying the British public “would expect our ambassadors to provide ministers with an honest, unvarnished assessment of the politics in their countries.   

“Their views are not necessarily the views of ministers or indeed the government. But we pay them to be candid, just as the US ambassador here will send back his reading of Westminster politics and personalities.”   

In one memo from 2017 Darroch said, “As seen from here, we really don’t believe that this administration is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional, less unpredictable, less faction-riven, less diplomatically clumsy and inept.”He also advised British officials to flatter Trump, writing: “For a man who has risen to the highest office on the planet, President Trump radiates insecurity.”   

Despite Trump’s characterization of news stories about infighting in his administration as “fake news,” Darroch also said officials should believe them.   

“The stories about White House knife fights are, we judge, mostly true: multiple sources and confirmed by our own White House contacts. This is a uniquely dysfunctional environment,” the ambassador wrote. 
London (dpa), 7 July, 2019