President Donald Trump on Monday trashed British Prime Minister Theresa May and threatened to “no longer deal with” the United Kingdom’s ambassador to Washington following leaks of the envoy's reportedly harsh assessment of Trump’s administration.
“I have been very critical about the way the U.K. and Prime Minister Theresa May handled Brexit.
What a mess she and her representatives have created. I told her how it should be done, but she decided to go another way,” Trump“I do not know the Ambassador, but he is not liked or well … thought of within the U.S. We will no longer deal with him,” Trump
The Daily Mail, a British tabloid, reported Saturday that U.K. Ambassador Kim Darroch leveled various insults against Trump and his White House in memos to London dating back to 2017.
“We don't really believe this Administration is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional; less unpredictable; less faction riven; less diplomatically clumsy and inept,” Darroch wrote in one of the documents, according to the Mail.
May’s spokesman said Monday that Downing Street had contacted the Trump administration, “setting out our view that we believe the leak is unacceptable” and calling the incident “a matter of regret,” Reuters reported. British trade minister Liam Fox also told BBC Radio he would apologize to Ivanka Trump on his scheduled visit to Washington during their planned meeting.
Asked for comment on whether the administration would cease its diplomatic relationship with Darroch, the State Department referred questions to the White House.
Speaking to reporters in New Jersey on Sunday, Trump asserted that Darroch “has not served the U.K. well,” adding: “We’re not big fans of that man.”
In a press conference with May last month during his first state visit to the U.K., Trump praised the outgoing prime minister as “probably a better negotiator than I am,” and said she deserves “a lot of credit” for her handling of Brexit.
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine