Britain’s ambassador to the United States described President Donald Trump’s administration as “dysfunctional”, “clumsy” and “inept”, the Mail on Sunday newspaper reported, citing a series of confidential memos.
The report drew ire from Trump, who said the British ambassador, Kim Darroch, “did not serve the UK well.”
In memos to the British government which date from 2017 to the present, Darroch said Trump “radiates insecurity” and advises officials in London that to deal with him effectively “you need to make your points simple, even blunt”.
“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, according to the newspaper.
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In others, the newspaper said he had described the administration as “uniquely dysfunctional” and that media reports about White House “knife fights” are “mostly true”.
“We are not big fans of that man and he has not served the UK well so I can understand and I can say things about him but I won’t bother,” Trump said, referring to Darroch.
Darroch wrote that “we could also be at the beginning of a downward spiral, rather than just a rollercoaster: something could emerge that leads to disgrace and downfall.”
But he also warned British officials not to write Trump off, saying there was a “credible path” to him winning a second term in office. He said Trump may “emerge from the flames, battered but intact, like (Arnold) Schwarzenegger in the final scenes of The Terminator.”
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A spokesman for the Foreign Office said the public would expect ambassadors “to provide ministers with an honest, unvarnished assessment of the politics in their country”.