Kim Darroch, the
British High Commissioner to the United States, has criticised President Donald
Trump as “incompetent” and headed towards a disgraceful end in a series of
diplomatic cables published by the Daily Mail on Sunday.
Mr Darroch sent the
stinging criticisms in the form of cables and briefing notes to his bosses back
at the Home Office in London between 2017 and this month, the newspaper
reported.
He chastised Mr
Trump’s government as “uniquely dysfunctional” and regularly engages in “knife
fights,” warning that the administration could end in “disgrace.”
The Home Office did
not dispute the accuracy of the memos but said they were nothing unusual as all
countries expect their ambassadors to provide a honest assessment of the situation
in their host countries.
The department also
said Mr Darroch’s messages were his personal opinions and do not necessarily
reflect the position of the UK government and its policies.
Mr Darroch, 65, a
former national security adviser to the U.K. government and a career diplomat,
has been the UK’s man in Washington since January 2016. The memos were released
ahead of a national security council event on the relationship between both
countries.
The Mail on Sunday
also reported that Mr Darroch did not rule out Mr Trump being indebted to
“dodgy Russians,” but added that the president had frequently overcome a life
“mired by scandal.”
Mr Trump strongly
denied ties to Russia, and a special inquiry did not find him culpable in the
alleged Russian interference in the U.S. 2016 elections that brought Mr Trump
to power.
Mr Trump may “emerge
from the flames, battered but intact, like [Arnold] Schwarzenegger in the final
scenes of ‘The Terminator,’” Mr Darroch further said. “Do not write him off.”
The leak emerged a
month after Mr Trump was hosted to a state dinner in early June by Queen
Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Theresa May.
Mr Darroch said Mr
Trump and his team had been “dazzled” by the high-profile visit despite
remaining self-interested.
The Foreign Office
said in a statement to the U.K. Press Association that “the British public
would expect our ambassadors to provide ministers with an honest, unvarnished
assessment of the politics in their country.”
The comments by
ambassadors are “not necessarily” the views of the government, the office said.
The White House and
the British Embassy in Washington have not issued any statement about the
leaks.
Source: Premiumtimesng
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