Donald Trump’s attack on ‘pompous fool’ British ambassador roils UK leadership race
- Diplomatic spat over leaked diplomatic memos escalates after Donald Trump calls UK ambassador a ‘very stupid guy’
- Fallout will create headache for Boris Johnson or Jeremy Hunt, contenders to become prime minister this month
US President Donald Trump’s full-throated attack on Britain’s ambassador to Washington is roiling the race for prime minister, putting the Trump-friendly front-runner in an awkward spot.
The extraordinary diplomatic spat between Britain and the United States, a historically close alliance, has erupted just two weeks before a party leadership vote determines who will replace Prime Minister Theresa May.
Trump has all but demanded the removal of Britain’s envoy to the United States, Kim Darroch, after a British tabloid’s publication of leaked diplomatic cables in which the ambassador depicted the US president and his administration as “inept” and “dysfunctional”.
Since the report’s publication in The Mail on Sunday, Trump has responded with a steadily escalating show of displeasure. After initially saying merely that he wasn’t “a fan” of the ambassador, he declared Monday that “we will no longer deal with” Darroch.
Then on Tuesday, the presidential commentary took a sharply personal turn, with Trump excoriating the envoy on Twitter as “wacky” and “a very stupid guy” and “a pompous fool”, while launching a broader attack on May’s “foolish” handling of Brexit, her country’s planned departure from the European Union.
May, who will remain in office until her successor is determined in a party vote that ends July 21, has strongly affirmed her support for the 65-year-old diplomat, even while expressing chagrin over the leak of what were supposed to have been closely held communiqués. The ambassador, she said, was simply doing his job.