Lindsey Yo-Yo Graham on Kim Darroch

What, indeed.

In the age of Trump

Theresa May did everything she could to accommodate Donald Trump. She was the first leader to visit him after he became president. She offered him a state visit to the United Kingdom at a much earlier stage in his tenure than his predecessors had received one. She uttered nary a word of criticism of his administration.

[...]

Trump actively undermined May on at least a dozen occasions—whether by interfering in investigations into terrorist attacks or by criticizing her Brexit strategy—but every single time, the prime minister turned the other cheek. She went out of her way to make the state visit a success. The president brought his extended family to London and seemed to treasure every moment. Trump could not have wished for a prime minister who was less demanding or more sycophantic.

[...]

Trump gave May nothing in return. Her government’s extraordinary generosity and tolerance of the intolerable could not even save the U.K. ambassador, Kim Darroch, from the president’s wrath. After the ambassador’s cables were leaked to the Daily Mail, Trump denounced him as a “pompous fool” who had not served the United Kingdom well. He declared that his administration would no longer deal with him. Darroch was immediately disinvited from a White House dinner with the emir of Qatar. He resigned this morning.

[...]

>Darroch’s crime was to state the obvious: that the Trump administration is inept and dysfunctional. Gérard Araud, who served as France’s ambassador to the United States for four years, told me that “anyone who has any experience of Washington would agree” with Darroch’s assessment. [...] “When Trump announced the withdrawal of U.S. forces, nobody in the administration—not Bolton, not the head of the CIA, not the chairman of the Joint Chiefs—knew he would take this decision. They did not know what it meant. Syria was just one of countless examples. Trump makes these decisions from the hip. No one knows what he will decide or what will happen the day after.”

[...]

“The U.S.” he said, “is playing in a different category. Ultimately, politicians do not care about ambassadors. They will not create an existential crisis over the fate of a diplomat. If necessary, they will make the sacrifice.” Darroch “is the victim of a political game in London.”

[...]

The president’s casual cruelty toward friends and the failure of Darroch’s many friends inside the Trump administration to say anything publicly on his behalf speak volumes about how much value the Trump administration places on alliances.

[...]

Trump respects only power and leverage.

  The Atlantic

But the diplomatic issue doesn't go both ways. American diplomats are allowed to say whatever they want - and in public.

Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, has been scathing in his criticism of Brussels, calling the European Commission “out of touch with reality” and “off in the clouds.” In a New Year’s Eve interview on BBC Radio 4, Woody Johnson, the U.S. ambassador to the U.K., said he had traveled throughout the United Kingdom and found the people desperate for new leadership. Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, began his term by calling for the United States to shame Germany on defense spending, and said he wanted to empower Trumpian conservatives in Europe. And this is what they have said on the record. One can only imagine their private briefings to the president.

So - for the rest of the world - why not discontinue diplomatically dealing with Trump?  He's just encouraged when you kowtow.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

What telling the truth about Trump will get you

Sir Kim Darroch, the UK ambassador to Washington who has been at the centre of a diplomatic row over leaked cables criticising Donald Trump, has resigned, the Foreign Office has said.

The Guardian understands that he concluded that his position was untenable after watching Tuesday’s Conservative leadership debate, in which the frontrunner, Boris Johnson, stopped short of backing him.

  The Guardian

He's not going to get over it

Again, sir, that's you.  You stupid, pompous fool.

He had to apologize to IVANKA!

Britain’s trade minister will reportedly apologize to President Trump’s daughter and senior White House adviser Ivanka Trump after leaked memos revealed a British ambassador describing the administration as “dysfunctional” and “inept.”

[...]

Reuters reports that British trade minister Liam Fox said he will apologize on behalf of the British government in person to Ivanka Trump during his current visit to Washington. “I will be apologizing for the fact that either our civil service or elements of our political class have not lived up to the expectations that either we have or the United States has about their behavior, which in this particular case has lapsed in a most extraordinary and unacceptable way,” Fox said on BBC radio.

[...]

It is unclear if the leaked cables mentioned Ivanka Trump specifically.

  The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

"He is not liked or well thought of"

'

You don't know him, but you know he'u\s not liked or well thought of.  Jesus, you're a disgrace.

You'd love to be royalty.  We know.

And this is what Theresa May gets for her submissiveness to Trump and her response to her ambassador, saying she didn't agree with his criticism of Trump.  (This isn't the first time he's said he told May what to do and she didn't do it.)



...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Everybody's saying it

Somebody leaked private memos belonging to Kim Darroch, the British ambassador to the US, and they aren't flattering to Old Lardass.

“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” – Summer 2017

[...]

“For a man who has risen to the highest office on the planet, President Trump radiates insecurity … There is no filter [that prevents Trump making offensive comments] … 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” – Summer 2017

[...]

In an interview with the Financial Times last year, Darroch gave a slightly different assessment. “I have met [Trump] seven or eight times and always found him to be absolutely charming,” he said.

[...]

Darroch says inviting Trump to the UK for a state visit was a “gamble”. But he says from Washington’s perspective it was a great success, earning the UK embassy precious extra goodwill from Trump staffers for whom this was “the hottest ticket of their careers”.

[...]

“[Trump’s] claim, however, that he changed his mind [about an air strike on Iran] because of 150 predicted casualties doesn’t stand up; he would certainly have heard this figure in his initial briefing. It’s more likely that he was never fully on board and that he was worried about how this apparent reversal of his 2016 campaign promises would look come 2020 [at the next election]” – 22 June 2019

[...]

Darroch says the embassy was in the dark on the night of the aborted airstrike for a while because even its “best contacts” were unwilling to answer calls. He warns that a further Iranian attack, involving the loss of American life, could trigger a U-turn from Trump.

  Guardian

Theresa May has expressed “full faith” in her ambassador to the US, Kim Darroch, but rejected his description of Donald Trump as inept and insecure, as she launched an inquiry into the leak of his diplomatic memos.

[...]

No 10 is scrambling to find the leaker after two years of memos emerged in the Mail on Sunday, causing Trump to condemn Darroch as someone who “has not served the UK well”.

  Guardian

And the poor man will surely have to be replaced.

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

He has to apologize to IVANKA!

Britain’s trade minister will reportedly apologize to President Trump’s daughter and senior White House adviser Ivanka Trump after leaked memos revealed a British ambassador describing the administration as “dysfunctional” and “inept.”

[...]

Reuters reports that British trade minister Liam Fox said he will apologize on behalf of the British government in person to Ivanka Trump during his current visit to Washington. “I will be apologizing for the fact that either our civil service or elements of our political class have not lived up to the expectations that either we have or the United States has about their behavior, which in this particular case has lapsed in a most extraordinary and unacceptable way,” Fox said on BBC radio.

[...]

It is unclear if the leaked cables mentioned Ivanka Trump specifically.

  The Hill