There is no question that the U.S. and Britain do share a meaningful history of a very "special relationship."
But the relatively recent history between Trump and Britain has been a different story. Apparently, only the Queen is wealthy, apolitical, adroitly tactful, and elite enough to merit that "special relationship" designation (for now).
Luckily, the voices in this country who speak up against Trump's so-called "policies" and offensive, insulting style serve a valuable role in not only domestic U.S. political forums, but also in international ones.
For as we take action to defend our nation's integrity as a democracy, and demand leadership that is actually educated in America's history and sophisticated in its estimation of America's best interests, we keep a modicum of hope alive among countries who remember an America which joined and led its allies in striving for a better world.
358
@Sachi G. Apparently you have forgotten that Obama told Britain they would go to the end of the line on trade deals if they passed Brexit.
1
Amateur psychology: The Queen is a surrogate for Trump’s mother. She is seen in photographs in minks. She rode in Cadillacs. She was the queen of Trump’s father’s Queens based realm.
The glitz and prestige of Manhattan lead him to the A-list clubs and then the gilding of Trump tower. He would always be in the shadow of his father and the glow of his mother.
Trump came of age with the prime time soaps of the 80’s and “reality” TV of the 90’s and 00’s. The reigns of Princesses Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian led a know-nothing populace into Trump’s arms. He was ready to be the master of the family drama and the scripted reality.
The current “Survivor” method of selecting a Democratic candidate continues this flawed approach to democracy.
The “Best and the Brightest” may not have been so, but the respect of the educated class, or at least the acceptance of them, has been replaced by the worship of the celebrity class - aided by the pervasive use of “social” media.
It will be a long slog back. Start selecting the 2040 candidates now.
13
@Jackson
What does that have to do with anything related to our integrity as a democracy?
Brexit nativists are against “its allies in striving for a better world”, and Obama was certainly understanding of America’s history and best interests. Not so much from the Grifter in Chief.
13
I do wish Darroch hadn't resigned. At least we know he gives an honest and accurate assessment of the current occupant of the White House. In fact, I wish he and other ambassadors who are being shut out by the inept and malicious Trump administration would just use the opportunity to speak out more. It's not like anyone else will do any better and we'll need their expertise and contacts when we have to pick up the pieces after Trump's done destroying America.
1267
At the end of the day, his job is to serve his country, and if the host country’s government refuses to talk to him, regardless of reason, then he cannot successfully serve. Pro-Trump types will see it as a repudiation of his well stated assessment of the Trump Administration. The reality is that Sir Kim is exiting his position because he knows how to put country over his personal career.
194
@Brannon Perkison The narrative being pressed is wrong. It's not about the report. It's about the leak and that should be looked into. No one ambassador will be candid in reports (nor will most normal people be in general) if they know it will be leaked. That's the issue and that's the story.
94
@Brannon Perkison
> I wish he and other ambassadors who are being shut out by the inept and malicious Trump administration would just use the opportunity to speak out more
That is SO not their job - ambassadors must work with other countries as they are, not at they ought to be. Only Americans can fixthe Trump administration.
35
Foreign diplomats are critical of Trump.
Good, it shows Trump is keeping his America First and anti-swamp promise he made to his voters. It shows foreign nations are not able to manipulate like they did other presidents before Trump.
Another reason why I should vote for Trump this time.
65
The criteria you have for qualifying the legitimacy of your head of state is gut wrenching. "As long as our allies are laughing at us it means the president must be doing something right"... Okay.
642
The leaked documents were about incompetence not complaining about access.
Anti-swamp promise? What does that even mean to you when we all see the cabinet and White House filled with people who are conflicted, personally profiting from their government positions, and/or incompetent.
Just look at all the former lobbyists or corporate insiders in cabinet positions (many acting instead of confirmed) serving the interests of their industries instead of the American people.
593
@Bhaskar
Open your eyes and take out the blind fold. The narcissist ego maniac with zero governance skill is destroying our basic foundation. He is doing a horrible job. Most people including his supporters don’t like how he treats others. The child bully survives by xenophobia, fear, division and relentless lies. No wonder, we have become a joke in the entire world.
498
Yes,it could be anyone of them... but no one readily calling out the charlatan Emperor's clothes....The stuff of authoritarians... or worse.
3
“British Ambassador To U.S. Forced To Resign For Stating The Obvious.”
This whole thing reads like an Onion headline.
Our president and his entire administration are a bad joke... on us.
9
Britain: The laughingstock is not your government, but ours.
6
How can a US president tweeting out comments worthy of a teenage churl not invoke the 25th Amendment? Wacky? Stupid guy? Really?? Who is he describing? Certainly not the British ambassador. trump sounds like a pure lunatic, or a man descending into dementia.
13
Electing Trump was dumb. Electing Boris Johnson is dumber. Brexit is dumbest. The credits list Putin as the producer of the Dumb Dumber and Dumbest global franchise, with right-wing conservative PAs running for coffee on the set.
9
So Darroch described Trump's administration as "inept and chaotic".
In an interview on PBS Wednesday evening, another British diplomat, now retired, straight-facedly described Sir Kim's words as "typical British reserve".
Almost fell out of our chairs laughing.
I've been reading "One Giant Leap" by Charles Fishman, about our moon landing fifty years ago. It is work of amazing research and detail, including 44 pages of notes and a 23 page bibliography. The section on John Kennedy's support of NASA is fascinating, and while reading transcriptions of his words, I was struck by something: JFK rarely used the personal pronoun. In his meetings he said "we", meaning the United States, always looking for what he thought was best for the whole country.
No further questions, your honor.
13
The Trump regime's relations with other nations--especially US allies--has been amateurish & chaotic. Hopefully those relationships will survive this disaster of a presidency.
7
Everything Trump comes in contact with becomes tainted, smeared, messy, whether deserved or not. In this case, it was not.
Sometimes ruined careers should just be seen as collateral damage from having such a man in the White House.
7
A small correction; he was not “caught in public”. A highly confidential and encrypted memo was leaked by someone who had access to it. We may never hear about it but heads will roll.
12
So Boris “The Boob” refused to defend the British diplomat or to criticize DOLTUS.
You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to figure out who “leaked” the confidential diplomatic messages.
Boris, when he becomes British Prime Minister, wants his communications with Trump to be on an one to one basis with no middle man.
Just like Trump does with Putin.
9
Boris Johnson = Trump Lite.
What a rollicking time we have ahead of us!
I pray we survive it.
7
Trump's backers can't seem to stop doubling-down on their own shame.
6
Trump is using the Nazis classic tactics of deny, obfuscate,and confuse. It muddles the situation sufficiently that everyone runs around in circles and nothing gets done. Which is exactly what the Leader wants. Stir things up and step in with a declaration that solves it and voila a decision.
6
donald j INFANT couldn't spell cat if you spotted IT the "c" and the "a".
What a shame that Mr. Darroch has had to step down. Clearly a veteran diplomat with some serious skills who simply is calling it like it is. As one Commonwealth ally to another, I can sympathize with being bypassed/insulted. Perhaps Mr. Trump sees Mr. Darroch as a national security threat? Or maybe the real reason is because Mr. Darroch tried to smuggle out a couple pair of shoes? Ah, that must be it. It doesn't bode well for the US to keep up this pretense of 'shared bonds' when they constantly ignore & smack allies in the face. Allies aren't stupid and will be more than glad to let you go it alone.
4
Telling the truth about Trump is dangerous while the cowardly bully is in charge, with all his dupes, enablers, and fellows in corrupt powermongering who are robbing my country blind.
It's interesting that Sir Kim Darroch was his escort at the British extravanza that was specifically designed to make Trump happy: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/07/10/six-ways-to-manipulate-donald-trump-227279
"When In Doubt, Toss Him a Glitzy Party. The British slathered Trump with pomp and circumstance and paved his path with gold leaf during his three-day state visit in June. It started with a ceremonial welcome at Buckingham Palace hosted by Queen Elizabeth. That was followed with a lunch with Prince Harry, a state banquet at the palace attended by royals, British politicians and executives, a breakfast with Prime Minister May and Prince Andrew, and a dinner with Prince Charles. And, he got to bring his entire family! Trump was “dazzled” by the visit, Darroch wrote, which was the Brits’ intent. “This was a wonderful visit, and U.K.-U.S. relations are now in the best state ever,” Trump told Darroch, who served as Trump’s glorified escort during the trip, as he departed."
Forget diplomacy, that's old and "fake". Trump and Republicans are perfectly happy to have the Russians manipulate our elections and deceive the gullible, as long as they **win**. But concede the lies, no way!!!
5
Unfortunately, conventional wisdom isn't enuf to take down the disgrace of a president--not even a peg with his current batch of supporters, who are enuf to frighten all of us that a second term is a possibility. What's needed is a consensus argument that reveals his fraudulence and ineptitude concisely and poignantly so that partisans and nonpartisans alike can readily reject, if not impeach him. I haven't heard the right argument or appeal from Pelosi, Schumer, the Dem prez candidates, or other prominent critics.
I haven't crafted my own attempt. Perhaps NYT readers could help.
This news piece should stay in the public eye for a while hopefully. Paul Reveres, emperor exposers, and bell ringers, should keep up the characterizations of Trump coming. It appears that the vast majority of diplomats around the world agree with the British ambassador’s assessment.
5
Any criticism of trump is perceived by his cult following as TDS.
The rest of us think of it as good character judgment.
4
One can only hope that Boris has proved himself to be bad enough with his appalling response to Sir Kim's candor in what should never have been entirely confidential, etc. to disqualify him from the Premiership. My god what a wretched display of lick-spittle toadying up to our very own frog-prince. As was said in the article the bond between our nations deserves better, from both sides. Trump, who knows no embarrassment should be appalled as well. That he didn't keep silent just illustrates once again his boorishness and his utter lack of qualifications for our highest office.
9
The US should take this latest kerfuffle as a serious warning; Trump is endangering our standing, as well as our security in the world. We cannot be taken seriously by our allies, or expect much cooperation in future, when we have a vain, impulsive authoritarian unilaterally controlling our country's policies. Trump has a method to his dictatorial madness; by not filling the various posts and positions in our government that are languishing vacant, he displays to all a totalitarian's desire for control and his contempt for cooperation and consensus that is so vital to the stability of the world.
4
@Susan "Once bitten, twice shy". You betcha allies will be very reluctant to cooperate with the US in future when they have been cavalierly ignored or insulted while dictators are praised to the skies.
2
I hope we can all assume that MI5/6 give this their utmost priority in identifying the source of the leak and throwing the book at such treasonous behaviour?
1
There is no mystery about how Trump makes decisions -- he doesn't! He throws darts at whatever dart board is handy and announces where the darts have landed. But...he does play a very underhanded and convoluted game, so the choice of dart board is important. No country can cooperate with someone who works like this, and so we will end up with no friends or allies, that's the crime.
3
I hope Mr. Trump’s calling him “wacky” and “very stupid” is not what made Sir Kim Darroch resign his position as British Ambassador to the U.S. They are nothing, compared with the billingsgate the Trumpian mouth is capable of spewing. Darroch should be happy that Trump refrained from using it while disparaging him. Maybe Trump restrained from using it because he knew filthy words wouldn't pass the Twitter muster.
The former French ambassador to the U.S., Gérard Araud, aptly describes Trump's modus operandi: “It’s what happens when a populist leader takes command in a liberal democracy.” Mr. Araud is being diplomatic in using the word “populist.” The adjective that fits Trump best is “thuggish.”
As we learn from this article, Ambassador Darroch’s evaluation of Trump is shared by many more envoys of U.S. allies in Washington. Like Mr Darroch, they have informed their respective governments back home that the best way to get Mr. Trump's attention is to flatter him. Though knew this Trumpian weakness, he wouldn't stoop to the level of being a flatterer to be in the good books of Trump. This is in striking contrast with the way the present PM of Israel and emirs of Saudi Arabia and U.A.E., exploited the Trumpian weakness in their dealings with him.
Will Trump ever learn that the respect the world leaders are showing in their interaction with him is not the respect they have for him as an individual? It is the respect they have for the office he accidentally holds now.
8
America First, that is the Civil War we are fighting for now. England is doing the same with the exit from the EU Global Cartel.
1
@Carter
Careful, or it will soon be America alone...Be careful how you treat others on your way up; they won't forget it when you are on your way down.
2
" ‘It Could Have Been Any of Us’: Disdain for Trump Runs Among Ambassadors"
This is understandable given that ambassadors tend to be higher class people (not neanderthal blowhards) who have to work around this administration. They have to deal with facts and reality, are not 'deplorables' (blind supporters who'll follow Trump off a cliff.. even if he takes down our country), and they don't benefit greatly from Trump tax cuts (a group that supports Trump for personal gain).
And off topic, but to put support for Trump in perspective, I just learned Sean Hannity's 2018 income was estimated by Forbes at $36 million... his 2.6% top tier tax cut (without deductions) would be $936,000/year, which is almost a million reasons to stick with Trump, and almost four million reasons to push for his re-election.
Our Snowflake-in-Chief can dish it out in spades, but can't take getting it back, one iota. Dissing our closest allies in favor of authoritarian leaders and regimes. Pathetic and disgraceful.
9
We have now officially become a banana republic complete with moronic dictator in charge. Congress has been rendered useless and the lowly senate goes along complicit in the entire matter. May Karma visit spurs and mcconnell
6
donnie trump's singular modus operandi is: Create CHAOS
He peddles chaos every moment, to benefit only himself.
Interesting that The Javanka went to the British Embassy's soiree. Those who don't get invited anywhere in Washington badly need to go somewhere, for their "look at me" instagram poses.
2
Mr. Darroch was obviously the victim of a political hit job. Who leaked his confidential memo and why?
5
The U.S. is unfortunately becoming more and more isolated every day. Shameful what is going on. It boggles the mind how this is allowed. How far we have fallen, and it's not over.
8
Every day I read with increased difficulty articles describing the worst inmate at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (djt) having taken over the asylum (the United States). The rest of the inmates (the Republican Party) have gleefully and irresponsibly gone along with the craziness. The rest of the world watches in amazement and incredulity, and must wonder when sanity will once again prevail in America, and if we can we ever be trusted as responsible allies again. I think it would help if all of these articles were on one page entitled “Letters from the Asylum” which would include Trump Administration policies and activities, as well as the ranting and raving, ineptness and dysfunction. Yes, I am thoroughly disgusted.
7
All this shows is that the rest of the world knows the truth. Our relations with the rest of the world are based on the whims of an off the rails presidency. Sadly, the Trump base and their Republican Party will continue to inflict harm on our relations with other nations until we can get another president who knows what he/she is doing.
6
Donald Trump can now disdain ambassadors of our major allies and make life miserable for the leaders of those countries until they fall in line with him and say yes sir, that's right sir, you're the best, sir, right away Mr. Trump.
I have said for a while now that we live in a global oligarchy. We're just vying for the position of being governed by the most powerful plutocrat. It remains to be seen if that is Trump, Putin, or Kim.
In an era of supposed nationalism, global oligarchy is what rules the world. Welcome to the Renaissance era redone for plutocrats who will control the world for hundreds of years now.
Noble experiment, the US Constitution and alliances with foreign governments. But its all up to the dictators now.
1
So far, you are able to think Trump is inept, as long as you don't say it out loud. However, there are rumors, that telescreens will soon be installed in all public and private spaces.
1
Sir Kim (not Mr. Darroch, if you please) was only doing his job. He was also telling the truth, and nothing he said about Trump was new. In the 17th century, Sir Henry Wotton (if I remember correctly) said that "an ambassador is a man sent abroad to lie for his country;" I think we may have got beyond that now, but it seems that in some circles that attitude still stands, or at least people would like it to remain. So-- Trump is a stable genius and a great statesman-- just ask any pathetic GOP toady.
5
I am shocked, SHOCKED to read that many ambassadors share Sir Kim Darroch's assessment of the Trump Administration, that it is inept and dysfunctional.
Well, hardly shocked. Frankly I would have been shocked if Ambassador Darroch's communique stated the opposite assessment.
I dare say that a majority of the Republicans in Congress feel the same way but don't have the political gumption to say it out loud.
As for the 35% diehard slice of the republican electorate who feel Trump is doing a great job, I keep thinking of what Ben Franklin once said:
"We are all born ignorant, but we must work hard to remain stupid."
6
One wonders what President Trump's reaction would have been if reports had been leaked that he and his administration were "incompetent" and "inept," but those cables had come not from the British Embassy, but the Russian Embassy?
This is not a joke. If you were able to check the confidential reports of practically any Embassy in Washington (barring the Saudis, Israelis and UAE), you would find the same evaluation of Trump -- only less diplomatically phrased. The Russians are no different. They know the score.
Russian State Media has taken great delight in its designated role to trash the President publicly, and Trump has scarcely voiced even a whimper of protest. One expects that if Ambassador Antonov was shown to be doing the same thing, Trump would simply dismiss it as "fake news."
Trump knows that it's fine to bully your allies when they can't fight back, but it's folly to bite the hand that feeds you. Money laundering for Russian oligarchs and others has been the bread and butter of the Trump Organization's business for the past two decades. No need to kill that golden goose.
7
We have had Presidents in the past with whom you may have agreed with or not, but they always had the Respect from World Leaders. How long will it take to undo the Damage Trump has done to the Presidency in the eyes of the Word?
5
Let's just face it: anyone with any intelligence knows that Trump in an incompetent, ignorant, narcissist. The distain for this man is universal and deep within both the American government and international governments.
Republican politicians may support him in public but we all know how they actually feel and think about him. They spoke plainly and directly about their distain for him before he (unfortunately) became their "leader".
12
Just another day with Lewis Carroll's Queen of Hearts in charge. Feared, but not respected; heard, but not regarded.
16
Reminds me of all the internal British, American, and (especially_ French) diplomatic memos that faulted Churchill during WW2. Nothing new here.
3
@Mark Shyres I'm not seeing Trump being in the same league as Churchill.
3
Really. Churchill and trump. Desperate much?
1
@Mark Shyres
The only thing Trump and Churchill have in common is that they are/were both bald.
Many of Trump's supporters don't appear to understand why the damage his presidency is doing to our international relations is an issue. We'll be cleaning up his mess for a long time after he's gone.
9
Well it's more they don't care. They by definition are as clueless and/or bellicose as he is.
4
@John L Amen.
1
@John L
His supporters are all nihilists, even if none of them have ever heard of this philosophy. They want a world based on angry chaos, devoid of rational examination.
Americans have not experienced the kind of horrific trials and tribulations of the Old World's history (the US Civil War doesn't even come close.) No Stalin-esque dictatorships with tens of millions starving and dying.
We can either learn from the old world's past or we can experience it for ourselves.
1
Pence lived next door and never visited?! Amazing.
5
@JVG
He wouldn’t dare, unless accompanied by ‘Mother’. Enough to make you lose your lunch, the lot of this revolving-door administration
2
The real losers in all of this are We the People of both America and the United Kingdom.
But that is to be expected as our Dear Leader has replaced the nation's sense of ethical standards of good with the narcessistic standards of self promotion as the national norm. That turns everything on its head. To wit: honest assessments to placating inacuracies; routine lying in place of truth, sexual scandals ignored and joked about instead of condemned; trust in dictators over the U.S. agencies that call them out; cabinet appointments based on personal loyalty over competence and loyalty to to the Constitution and Rule of Law; Nepotism the norm instead of the exception; general conduct disrespectful and undignified instead of respectful and with dignity...and most of all: always talking about self and never listening to others.
That is what Trump has done to America...and a huge plurality of us seem to like it that way.
So much for all we do we say we stand for. Trump has proved otherwise at least for now. 2020 will tell us what we really stand for one. ... And it will likely be close, one way one way or the other.8
8
@Bruce Olson
It's disgusting, but Trump is like a mirror reflecting our national character. Such a shame.
So Boris wants a Great, independent Britain - but kowtows to Trump (in advance).
What a spineless gesture was that? - 'Make Britain Little again' ??
10
While I agree with Mr. Darroch's assessment (and evidently, the assessment of other ambassadors), one wonders why it was necessary at all.
We are long past the day when ambassadors are literally the eyes and ears of their countries. Instantaneous communication, particularly with a tweet prone person like Trump, means the British Foreign Office has all the info it needs to make a judgment about the current President. And its not as though Mr. Darrouch spent any quality time with Trump discussing matters of urgency. He may have had lower level contacts, but nothing in the press seemed to indicate that anything was said about the administration that hasn't been widely reported already.
An ambassador today is a largely ceremonial post, as well as an administrative function for the many programs an embassy runs. Except in rare cases of true international crisis, one on one conversations of importance are few and far between.
@nub
Agree completely. Those cables were cliched opinions, not worth the time to write or read and therefore unnecessary risk. Mr. Darroch appears to be stuck on trying to make up for not alerting the British that Trump was on the rise, before the election.
2
@nub
Rubbish! Only a fool would rely solely on tweets instead of inter-personal contacts as a way to communicate important information.....Whoops!
1
The final sentence, in the letter, stating that the bond between two nations transcends any individual is somewhat ironic in the Trump Era.
5
Why was the email leaked? Was it the Russians trying to sow discord? Or perhaps someone in England trying to put Boris Johnson on the spot? He came out looking weak for not standing up for Darroch. Or was it really an angry family member of the Darroch family? I will be curious to find out.
5
Would Trump have been so thin-skinned if his trip to the UK was upcoming rather than completed in the recent past? He got his photo ops and ego boosts so he doesn't further need the UK ambassador. No doubt Trump and his people have received their last invitations from the UK.
Vote Democratic in 2020. Our world reputation depends on it.
8
Is this really the way a truly presidential president would respond? Trump's rough swagger and inattention to his real job undermine the office he "holds." Who benefits from this latest move? Boris, another boor like Trump, and others who do not like the EU. I do not have a clue as to Vlad's part in this, only that a weaker EU is better for Vlad. The Marshall Plan so spooked Stalin the Iron Curtain was dropped. There's more to Darroch's conversations/words being hacked than those words; the intention of course was to get rid of him as speaking as a representative of Great Britain.
3
My own non-confidential undiplomatic assessment: Impossible to hide that the "Leader of the Free World" at the moment is a capricious, whiny, con man incapable of complex thought. I can only hope the broad repetition of assessment from all corners will assist in the enlightenment of all rational voters.
10
"...but he never quite felt that he broke into the Trump administration’s inner circle."
No "diplomat" belongs in the inner circle of a head of state. Did this "diplomat" fail miserably diplomat school? Diplomats should represent their governments and be a conduit to their governments, no more no less. Perhaps he too suffers from TDS. There seems to be a great deal of that around!
1
Tough to be a diplomat if you can’t break into the diplomatic clique
was it worth it ? Now we have lost an intelligent British Ambassador
We ought to be asking ourselves, Who benefits from leaking the diplomatic cables? Neither the U.S. nor the U.K. benefits--not the Trump White House and not the Tories, clearly. And we also ought to ask who has a history of hacking and leaking. I would want the intel offices of both countries to investigate this hack. It would not surprise me to find a bear involved--fancy, cozy or otherwise. Who benefits more than Putin from a rupture of the "special relationship"?
4
And it's acceptable for Trump to criticize the mayor of London, and Teresa May?
The British should call for his resignation.
He really can't take it, can he?
10
My English relatives point out that Parliament does not choose the new prime minister. May's successor will be the next head of the Tory Party, and that post is elected on 20 July by a small and right wing Tory Party membership.
1
This is a fascinating time. The Jacksonian references do seem to apply more and more to this moment, which, like the seventh Presidency, is increasingly marked by a disregard for political or diplomatic precedent. Since there is no chance of this decidedly alloplastic administration to change inasmuch as it has no motivation to do so, then the most pertinent question is "what next?"
Does the nation--and the world--return after this Presidency to something that even vaguely resembles the diplomatic world we knew before 2017 or have those norms been tossed onto the historical heap of other watershed moments like Jackson's 1829? With the advent of technology now that can pierce political secrets like an iceberg through the Titanic, public servants may find their basic choice coming down to whether the best accomplish their work by mastering the art of open bombast or by honing their skills of circumspection.
Prime Minister May certainly has the right to voice support for Her Majesty's diplomats' prerogative to express their thoughts; however, in this arena they will also need to do a better job of picking their battles and their battlefields.
Ambassador Araud, who is arguably one of the most accomplished diplomats of our time, knew better than to speak his mind out of season while in office--well, most of the time. He clearly understood how to communicate his most critical messages back to the Élysée Palace with special care. The UK should take note.
3
While Trump's domestic policies understandably get most of our attention within the US, his effect on the US's standing in the world is where he's doing his greatest damage. Much of what he is doing internally can be undone, although the intensification of division he has sowed may be hard to change. However, even if we elect someone wonderful to follow Trump who reverses all of the damage he is doing abroad, foreign countries will never see us as a stable force again. They will rightly feel this could happen again, especially if we continue to allow our system to be influenced by anti-democratic influences like the electoral college, voter suppression and gerrymandering. Under this system, they have to fear that things could swing back again. It's embarrassing to have the rest of the world laughing at us and our leader, but more important is the permanent damage he is doing to our nation's international standing going forward. In this area, at least, he's unparalleled.
4
A lot of things have been said about every president and their administration. Personal observations aside, the most telling is the use of the word “inept” is the one most dangerous. Trump is clumsy, boorish, and sadly, unashamed.
6
The combination of those negative character traits is what amplifies the threat Trump poses to our country - and the world. Inept is one thing; inept and unaware of it is a totally different thing.
2
The Trump haters enjoy the musings of an elite diplomat as if it makes some sort of difference to the relationship with the United Kingdom. It does not.
Boris Johnson may be the new Prime Minister by the end of the month. When that occurs the bond between the United Kingdom and the United States will again be strong.
Because they both aspire to dictatorship?
6
"Aspire to dictatorship"? In case you didn't notice, he is there. Rounding up people this morning. "Then they came for me...."
Because they are both inept?
1
Trump gifts all who support him with money and gifts of one kind or another. Maybe the old sock got low.
Ambassadorships are nothing more than political cronyism in action. No more than the political face of the country which they represent, a personal conduit who's usefulness in today's world has passed.
This is wiki leaks all over again. The Russians want Brexit to dismember the collective alliance behind NATO. Putin wanted Trump to dismember NATO and presto so did the quizzing commence to attack NATO as soon as he was elected. Johnson was part of the lying Brexit cabal that, according to the Guardian, was aided and averted by the Russians, with the Russian ambassador to the UK playing a pivotal role in face to face discussions at his embassy. So now the British ambassador is conveniently removed by the heir apparent so the 2 Putin puppets can collude on Brexit. Johnson May also believe he is like Churchill and can negotiate a new transatlantic trade alliance but England will find out, too late, that once the British are out of Europe, Trump will pin them against the wall and rape them, as is Trump’s wont. The Johnson has no idea what perfidious monster he is dealing with.
8
So, who intercepted the cables that led to the leak? Who would have benefited most from yet another strain in the U.S., U.K., E.U. alliance? Russia? Nahhhhhh. That's just crazy and paranoid.
6
To my knowledge, in all of Trump's indignant, childish responses to the leaked cable, does the President deny the veracity of the British ambassador's assessment of White House operations. Trump has characterized Darroch as "whacky" and "stupid" but the word "liar" has not appeared.
In other words, Trump himself has affirmed Ambassador Darroch's assessment. You can take it to the bank.
10
trump does not meet with ambassadors and diplomats of other nations because his obvious ignorance would be on display. That has been obvious from the very beginning. His social graces can best be described as 'party greeter'. Hello, how are you? He claims chaos is good in order to keep people off balance, whereas the chaos around him is better explained as a means to hide the real depths of his ineptitude.
10
The British are still acting out their fantasy as a great superpower with ambassadors around the world sending them "secret" information back from the colonies like this was the 19th century. This is really what is behind Brexit. They are finding out the hard way that the rest of the world is indifferent because they have moved on - something the British will not do. It's pathetic.
21
@Jason Bourne
Your comments do not make sense - how does Britain act out superpower fantasies by having ambassadors around the world? Almost every nation which trades internationally has ambassadors everywhere. The ambassador was doing his job, no different to any other country's ambassador.
You claim to know what is really behind Brexit but show little grasp of modern politics. What is really behind Brexit is a desire for democracy, to be governed and have laws made by people that we elect, rather than people appointed in the EU commission, whom we cannot vote either in or out.
Britain, superpower? No, nobody has thought that since the 1950s
42
@Jason Bourne Thanks for straightening that out for us, Jason! Your analysis of the British situation right now is nuanced as all get out.
11
@Jason Bourne
Is this a serious point? To suggest that an ambassador doing what ambassadors the world over do is in some way a throwback to Empire is ludicrous. There are plenty of things going wrong with the UK today (Brexit lunacy being the worst) but having an effective ambassador to the US who tells it like it is to his home government is not one of them.
30
It appears the world is slowly reaching a consensus: the American juice is not worth the squeeze.
Once Europe and the others get their act together they will realize if they, as a unit, opt to ignore Mr. Trump's insane gambit and make their own trading pacts with Iran, and each other, our goose is well done.
Since saving face is all he has, at that point our woebegone President's only option will be to go ahead and actualize his foolish threats of war.
We will be on our own, without military or trading partners, and Trump's base will be involuntarily relocated to the Middle East for more decades of destructive fun.
Despite appearances, round one to the world. Now we'll see if Mr. Trump can play from behind.
154
@oogada
Other countries have been forced to work around Trump because they need to plan long term for the good of their economies. This has reduced US export customers (especially for farmers), and with long-term contracts there's a good chance some won't come back for a long time, if ever.
6
@oogada
The key phrase in your post is "Once Europe and the others get their act together ..." This hasn't happened in the past and will not happen for the next 1,000 years either.
Let us talk when the rest of the world unite. Until then, my bet is on this piece of real estate we call the US. Love it or leave it. It is that simple.
Trump is the first leader to emphatically proclaim American superiority and that too with a lot of bluster. We love it.
1
"It could have been any of us".
Perhaps it should have been all of you.
One of the primary reasons for Trump's popularity is that he rightfully believes that diplomacy may be a useful starting point in solving complex problems, but there's little evidence it has resulted in meaningful solutions.
He blames our reliance on diplomacy for the lack of peaceful solutions in the Middle East, the rise of rogue nations like North Korea, and the continued migration of millions from Third World countries to Europe, North America, and Australia.
Many of us see the world through the same lens.
Go back to the U.K., Sir Kim. Maybe you can help negotiate a Brexit solution.
Diplomacy is at fault in the Middle East?? The alternative is...war? Already there and trump huffs and puffs at the flames
Diplomacy is at fault in the Middle East?? The alternative is...war? Already there and trump huffs and puffs at the flames
The fundamental problem here is that the Foreign Services of many countries attract and select the best minds that come into the public service. People who become Ambassadors or senior foreign service staff are highly educated, intellectually capable and experienced individuals who understand what foreign service and the associated decorum is about. When this class of intellect and experience is confronted with host governments led by dangerously ignorant, intellectually crippled people, their natural reaction is bound to be one of disdain and their professional obligation is to report their observations of the situation to their home governments as they see it. Obverse disdain happens when the US sends inept and incompetent people to represent its interests in foreign countries accustomed to a higher level of intellect, intelligence and experience from the US. The solution may come with a change of leadership that understands the standards and decorum which foreign service needs to meet.
2
Just another event in the continuing decline of the western world, kicked off by global migration and crushing poverty.
Our new world leader has clamped down on descent, the resignation should send him higher than fourth of July fire works.
Too bad it's all happening at a time when the nations of the world need to address issues that will be current in 30 or 50 years like; how are you going to feed 9 billion people, control disease, contain lawlessness, and dominate the rest of the world economically?
This demonstrates why, apart from Justin Amash, few in the GOP will speak on the record about the train wreck that is this administration. Insults, a freezing out of meetings and POTUS refusing to work with anyone who challenges his ideas or is critical of his "processes," is what they can expect. This shouldn't scare anyone as the more people that stand up to a bully the less power the bully has over them. The bright side of these events is that they reveal the character of our leaders. Let's not forget this on election day.
6
Russia is the clear beneficiary.
And of course the "very stable genius" reacted, over reacted, exactly as predicted.
One more wedge driven between the U.S. and our NATO allies on top of our tariff attacks on the E.U.
Ask any sane person, why are we putting tariffs on Ireland?
Impeachment, criminal charges, or election defeat, it can't come soon enough.
2
This incident illustrates what may be the most frightening aspect of Trump's presidency--his alienation of the United States from the world community. It feels much like sitting on a high branch in a hurricane. We might survive, then again we might not, and there is nothing rational people can do about it.
16
There may well have been some nefarious Tory insider motivation for the leak of confidential "DipTels", but the slow drift of attentiion from the leaking to the actual content is obviously what Trump himself was worried about and reacted so violently and preemptively against. The more the merrier: where's Julian Assange when we need him?
2
Ambassador Darroch only wrote in his confidential cable what about half of the U.S. population believes. It wasn't a public statement. Whoever released it knew that Trump would thunder and the Brits would move Darroch out. I wonder if whomever released this cable will get their just dessert.
13
Welcome to Fortress America, a society that is becoming progressively regressive, denying most of benefits of the Age of Enlightenment. Increasingly consumed by paranoia and self-celebration, we are stuck in a Bacchanalian vortex of opioids and alcohol. Our political system is awash in influence and self-serving motives, democracy and republicanism are obscure. The bright news is that we have plenty of land, water and cheap energy, enjoy it while it lasts.
13
He should have been knighted again.
Reminds me of Shakespearean fools telling truth to power.
Good luck in your future endeavors (endeavours), Kim.
15
Then the emperor demanded citizens in other countries also admire his new clothes.
23
He upset the bully in the playground. Do not for one moment think this would only happen with DT.
5
Trump's description of Darroch is like describing himself.
14
@Dominic
Well, yes. Trump so often projects his very real weaknesses on others. For me this became quite apparent during the election where he assigned so much of himself to Hillary.
15
If every foreign official who considers Trump to be inept is forced to resign, Embassy Row will be a ghost town.
20
I can see how Darroch's abilities were compromised by his honesty - telling things like they really are is the exact opposite of diplomacy.
But telling the simple truth about the most vile and incompetent US president ever should not be a career ending event. Anyone paying any attention at all knows that Trump is beyond incompetent and his actions make the world less safe on a daily basis. It is pathetic to see the US move from being viewed as a world leader to a strange anomaly that should be ignored whenever possible.
19
These leaks of intelligence reports by Darroch are all part of the insane Brexit civil war going on in Britain. They were leaked by some Brexit fanatic (almost certainly a member of May's government) with the express purpose of embarrassing Darroch personally and the British civil service generally who are viewed as anxious to keep the UK in the EU. In Britain they have produced a torrent of attacks on Darroch by Brexit supporters who poor souls render under the delusion that Trump is their special friend when of course the British/US relationship is entirely transactional.
6
It's about time some allies forcefully take on Trump in public. He can't make any disparaging remarks about the U.K. as he would have done if it were an ambassador from an African country. It's hard to do that especially against the British. Trump is insecure. His first press secretary first news conference was to lie by stating there were more people on the National Mall during his inauguration than Obama's. Even if it were true, which it's not, it shows insecurity. At times he seems to forget he's the president of the United States. He believes in conspiracy theories instead of that the CIA reports. It's as if he suffers from Walter Mitty syndrome.
8
Good for Sir Kim Darroch. He spoke the truth and was willing to pay the price. The key to survival with the Trump administration is to do nothing but make Donald Trump look good. If you tell the truth, you are out. If you disagree, you're gone. If you have a conscience, you will not survive. You can lie, cheat and be plagued by scandals, but if you hang in there and support Donald Trump, he will protect you. Every day, this administration does more to alienate the rest of the world (except the murderous dictators) and so many people just stand by and think about how Trump is going to protect their single religious. cultural or political issue. Darroch was right, but they do not care.
8
Mr Darroch was quoted as commenting on the Russian conspiracy, so it's not all reflective of Trump but also of our activist DNC press and their 2 year Pizza-gate like conspiracy. I get Trump has the wrong temperament for President but a lot of it is TDS from the activist press.
America was exposed for conducting digital surveillance of Angela Merkel, among other world leaders, and she got over it just fine.
What is Donald Trump’s problem, exactly?
9
Why is telling the Truth so dangerous today in the U.S. and abroad. Anyone with intelligence knows Ambassador Darroch was merely stating facts that most of the civilized world whole heartedly agree with. When the Truth is no longer considered something to be desired; you get the swamp that we see today. We are truly living through an era where "Alternative Facts" have become the norm; and the sooner that stops/ the sooner sanity can be restored. I applaud Mr. Darroch for speaking Truth to Power; would that many more would follow his footsteps. Where are the "Profiles In Courage" these days?!
22
The issue is not the thoughts in the secret cables (most diplomats think the same) but rather who ordered the leak of the cables and why?
The result of this leak would have been predictable. The anti-Trump media would have pounced with joy to publish. Trump did not immediately respond. Perhaps it took upping the volume on Fox to get his attention. But, it may have also been a voice in the WH working with whoever ordered the leak to make sure that Trump would be enraged and respond. Amb. Darrouch's resignation may have been planned to get a more pliant replacement.
But the fallout with the EU cannot be ignored. Trump prefers a hard Brexit with a compliant UK to confront a more divided EU. Whoever ordered the leak may have also been involved in ordering the seizure of the Iranian tanker in Gibraltar to not only deny Iran revenue, but also to erode UK-EU relations at a time of maximum pressure on Iran and leadership change in the UK and in the EU.
This leak may be an insidious attempt to manipulate UK government processes by pro-Brexit elements working with U.S. allies rather than an accident.
152
@Vid Beldavs
Conspiracy theories are often too complex to withstand even superficial analysis.
The leak of Darroch's DipTels was probably engineered by a UK political source (probably a ministerial special advisor) as part of the running battle on BREXIT in which many hard-BREXIT leaning politicians feel that there are too many anti-BREXIT and pro-deal civil servants and diplomats (despite the British tradition of non-politicised bureaucrats.) Displacing a fine Ambassador was a disgraceful act intended to accelerate (by just 3-4 months) the possibility of appointing of an explicitly pro-trade Ambassador who would assist the development of a UK-US trade agreement.
Meanwhile, the actual exercise of international realpolitik, so historically dependent on US-UK co-operation, continues as normal, with the UK's assistance to Gibraltar in arresting an Iranian tanker (not because of American "policy" towards Iran in fact, but actually in support of EU sanctions against Syria) and in then seeing off Iranian Revolutionary Guard attempts to impede shipping in the Gulf of Hormuz. That, no doubt, will advance the recent US military request to field an international naval taskforce in the Gulf to protect international shipping - to which no doubt the Royal Navy will be the first contributor.
Trump eccentricities will continue, and score some perfectly blameless scalps such as Darroch's, but thankfully that slightly strained "special" relationship will continue to deliver.
9
@Vid Beldavs - we should all be concerned about your first point: who ordered the leak and why?
If we give consideration about your next point about a potential link between UK-EU relations and the rise in tensions between Iran and some nations, that is a potentially much grosser piece of espionage, on par with hacking elections and subverting governments. I would not link anything to the idea that POTUS "prefers a hard Brexit" because he pivots with the breeze and has no sustained discernment. Boris Johnson is a POTUS infatuation until he is not.
13
@Vid Beldavs...If we're going with grand conspiracy theories about "the Leak", try this on for size. One of Sir Kim's mistresses became enraged by his neglect of her and his dalliances with others. No longer a favorite in the grand ballroom at The Embassy or a darling at the swinging New York soirees, she played the lowest card in the deck. Vengeance. Nobody loves pillow talk vengeance more than the tabloids of London. Of course, this is all bloody poppycock.
1
Trump reacted exactly how the person that leaked the cable had no doubt predicted. Trump is anything but “unpredictable.”
10
The Truth shall make you free from your former career.
4
Yep. Darroch is correct. Trump is inept & corrupt.
1) Trump is driving interest rates way down to benefit the wealthy & corporations. How many of you retirees are suffering from Trump’s low interest rates on your savings?
2) A million times Trump promised us a Mexico paid wall. Where is it? Why is he trying to make Americans pay for it?
3) What has Trump accomplished with his painful trade wars? Where are his promised new millions of high paying manufacturing jobs?
4) Trump & his children are making millions by steering foreign gov spending towards his properties. You & I struggle while he sells our government to enrich himself!
If you’re a retiree, a farmer, or anyone other than ultra wealthy, Trump has been a disaster for us!
23
It was not a gaffe, but a leak [by some brexit-fan?].
1
Of course all the Ambassadors think the same, it is the truth. That, however, is not something that Trump recognises. The thing that galls me most about this is that Trump thinks he can say whatever he likes about others, no matter how insulting, spiteful, and untrue, but as soon as someone criticises him his anger knows no bounds. The worst President you have ever had and one who is doing immense damage to both the USA and international relations especially with America's allies.
33
This only confirms what most people know. Trump is not mentally stable and should be removed from office asap.
21
I feel sorry for Mr. Darroch. As soon as his words became public, his usefulness as a diplomat was compromised. But he said what any pragmatic observer would say, and what many of us say on a daily basis! It's not like he was giving away some secret -- it's written in letters a mile high across the skies for all to see: Donald Trump is a flawed man driven by narcissism and insecurity. He has no empathy for others because it is all used up on himself. It makes him inept and clumsy. Worst of all, he's unable to learn from his mistakes because he's unable to admit he makes mistakes.
It is a shame that Mr. Darrochs tenure as ambassador had to end this way but no shame accrues to him. He did his job as he ought.
404
@Art Likely
A slight correction to "as soon as his words became public, his usefulness as a diplomat was compromised." As soon as he wrote his non-diplomatic words his usefulness as a diplomat ended.
2
@Art Likely Mr. Darroch - Sir Kim- will probably be fine. It is 'our' reputation and status in the world that has suffered further damage-proving Ambassador Darroch's evaluation.
Former Secretary Tillerson 'suffered' the same fate after his comments on the failings of this government became public. He has continued to appear and speak at world forums-where people of experience/judgement attend.
13
@Boweezo
Unfortunately, there will many unfortunate consequences of his having been President.
4
What’s the surprise?
A bully likes war, not diplomacy.
7
Well, once Prime Minister Boris Johnson takes over Trump will have company in the laughingstock front. We Americans won't have to hang out heads quite so low when we visit London.
15
How long are the Brits going to believe they have a special relationship with the USA? Of course with Mr. Johnson Prime Minister of Britain this might go on a little longer but we are at the end of an era. The USA have few friends - Israel and the Arab oil kingdoms. With them around who wants a European??
4
Actually, Boris Johnson is finally becoming diplomatic for once!
Darroch's position is compromised. It's not his fault, and all he did was state the bleeding obvious, but once your man on the ground is so compromised best get him out.
Whoever is responsible for the leak, whatever their political persuasion or motive, they should be subject to the Treason Act and strung up on the Tower of London.
8
As I understand it some of the leaked material dates from summer 2017, maybe earlier. At that time Boris Johnson was Darroch’s boss as Foreign Secretary and was until autumn 2018. He would have seen these communications then. He made no move to dismiss Darroch. I believe Johnson is fully capable of House of Cards style dirty dealing.
10
Ambassador Darroch got the sack because he was telling the truth to the British Foreign Office. That is what diplomats are supposed to do. Their communications to their home bases need to be candid and unvarnished so that their governments get a true picture of what political currents are moving in the countries to which they have been credentialed.
Donald Trump has a deep-seated and probably pathological aversion to the truth. Nor has he any knowledge of or respect for the context(s) of international diplomacy. Is it any wonder that the revelation that a smart and seasoned diplomat regarded him as a doofus made him boil over? It is one more reason (as if any further reasons were needed) why Mr. Trump is supremely ill equipped to fill the office to which he was elected. He is doing his best to wreck the standards of international diplomacy and he is being enabled in his destruction by the Republican Party. Shame on both of them.
9
The USA has always been an example of leadership, international esteem, and civilisation.
A role model in the top-10 of civil societies.
But, since this Administration has robbed the White House, the US has become the laugh of the world.
Many US citizens apologize and feel ashamed.
For their comfort: we don't blame you, we blame Trump and his supporters only.
311
@ritsd Thank you for understanding! As we travel around the world, we hear about Trump and just want to hide our heads.
38
@ritsd thank you. It is daily torture to live under this criminal regime.
36
@ritsd Thank you, kind friend. My country's highest office holder's low standards, low morals, and low blows rightly shame me, yet his supporters are proud of him (!) The moral support of people in moral nations like yours is much appreciated.
25
Our Ambassador to the United States of America did something that your president is incapable of doing, and that is telling the truth. Therefore in Trumpian America he was punished for it, however in reality he is probably extremely relieved to be able to get away, probably as far as possible from the chaos that is Trump's America.
9
Sir Kim Darroch has been mired in Brexit as well as the internal politics of UK that ultimately brought Prime Minister May’s exit.
Sir Kim found a convenient face-saving strategy to blame the US President since the new leader, Boris Johnson, would not have kept him in this high profile position anyway. He calculated correctly that the US media would never waste such an opportunity to divert attention from Trump’s recent court victories and victories on the southern border.
The strategy worked. Sad.
2
'Britain's Ambassador to Washington has described Donald Trump as 'inept', 'insecure' and 'incompetent' in a series of explosive memos to Downing Street.'
Sir Darroch is correct. These three adjectives, along with the narrative that accompanied his confidential cable are spot on, but some words are meant to be caged.
We live under the reign of a guy with an EQ of an adolescent. Candor and truth are the 'enemy of our enemy.' Sir Darroch, he clueless and cognitively impaired as to what the word diplomacy means along with any other vocabulary words that speak to inclusion, nor does he give a rip.
Once again, for a thousand reasons, I am embarrassed and apologize that you must resign from your post for speaking the truth.
4
Ambassador Araud notes, "It’s what happens when a populist leader takes command in a liberal democracy. These people don’t recognize or accept the idea that an ambassador or a bureaucrat could be of any use. They only want to deal with other leaders."
No doubt that's so, but with Donald Trump there's another incentive to avoid dealing with foreign ambassadors. He'd have to deal with them through his own diplomatic corps, which would mean trying to comprehend the reports of intelligent, well-informed people.
In one-on-one diplomacy, he can keep talks at his own level, conduct them as sealed-room mysteries, and pretend that they were a great success.
8
The blessed European ambassadors need to realize that the American people are free.
3
Who are you kidding? We are not as free as people think.
8
@Sue
You only believe you are free because your handler in the White House tells you you are....
Thanks you Mr. Darroch for pointing out what the entire world already knows - that the trump circus is a raging dumpster fire completely out of control.
You called it 100% correct. I only wish others would come forward but of course they won't - this is not a particularly courageous time we live in.
12
@Plennie Wingo
Sadly, and with great embarrassment, I must admit that our government is bathing in all of the 7 Deadly Sins at the present...
Maybe they should all resign. Only fair if they don’t know how to use diplomatic language and are going to be an embarrassment to their countries.
1
Right. Sir Kim is being dunned out by two solipsistic children for having told the truth.
As to making Britain's government a laughing stock - the Brits have done a pretty good job of themselves by declaring they were leaving the EU then not managing to actually do that. When Boarish Johnson becomes PM the job will be complete without outside help.
1
The repercussions of the ineptness of the Trump administration will reverberate for many years after he leaves office, whenever that might be. Sadly, for some USA citizens, they see that ineptness as a positive, when in fact the negatives of it will harm this nation and their children and grandchildren.
5
I'm glad President trump doesn't do things politically correct.
I can understand foreign ambassadors being upset with their new results.
The icing is missing from their cake!
With Darroch's experience I could wonder what kind of ambassador he is? Faithful to the queen I'm sure.
Considering the U.K. is our third biggest trade debtor and isn't in agreement with some our new policies on trade maybe it's time for a review?
I like the president's style and I could care less who or what country we're dealing with the deals need to benefit both sides all the time.
1
‘You like the president’s style”? That says enough about you and anyone who thinks like that. His style is that of a 12 year old bully. In an adult world leader that’s not a good thing.
12
@Redback. Read the article: “Mr. Darroch often tried to reach out to the White House and the National Security Council, but he never quite felt that he broke into the Trump administration’s inner circle.” How can anyone not given access to the staff at the White House, as Mr. Darroch, could give a “fearless and frank assessments“ ? It is more like speculative and subjective. But it is now an academic point. He’s gone and Trump adds another point to his list of rhetorical wins.
2
The ‘special relationship’, to the extent that it continued to exist after the Iraq debacle, is now in tatters. Brexit has disconnected Britain from Europe and Trump has disconnected it from the USA, with the aid of Boris Johnson’ sycophancy. Putin must be delighted.
3
You have it all wrong mate. Foreign diplomats to the US are supposed to report to their governments, not cuddle up to the POTUS. Foreign nations should be expected to stand up for their country's interests just as the US stands up for its interests. It is most definitely NOT the POTUS' responsibility to edit and comment on these communications. Shall 'we' change the system and let US diplomats filter their reports through British, French, Germans, Chinese and Russian leaders?
7
This only makes Trump's base support him more because they think Trump is not being a patsy. I am not a fan of Trump but how savvy is any Ambassador to let something like this get out? Trump may be all of the things the ambassador accused him of being but it seems like the pot calling the kettle black. The Ambassador showed the world that he chose the wrong line of work.
2
Oh boo-hoo. The UK ambassador is obliged to resign for impolitic remarks and it is reported the Us President is generally held in disdain by the foreign diplomatic corps posted in the US. The latter I doubt so, save those countries - mostly Western Europe - long accustomed to US largesse and now abruptly deprived. Bash Trump as you may, but he acts in the interests of the USA and boldly refuses to ignore the invidious resentment marking most states' attitude towards the USA even as they cozen for favors.
2
It's well known that British diplomats compete for attention in the Foreign Office by cultivating a witty dispatch style they hope will amuse their superiors and enhance their status in the F.O. I suppose it would never occur to any of these supposedly intelligent people that these could be leaked--and by whom? President Trump's enemies or their own?
1
In covering the so-called Trump “administration,” it’s unavoidable, perhaps, that journalists convey the impression that there's a coherent center of power, relative to which allies are excluded.
Instead, there's the world of allies continuing as it had under Obama (more or less, notwithstanding: Brexit, etc.), while Trump Land is excludes itself from the landscape, i.e., making itself chronically clueless about the world of global leadership, being marginalized in the G-20 and G-7, and being the laughingstock of genuine leadership that is allied in avoiding Trump Land until after 2020.
It’s as if a doughnut is defined by Trump Land relative to its hole. But the hole is unable to see its relativity to substance (i.e., the great legacy of allied partnership that goes along fine without thinking about the hole).
The clearly inept real estate salesman who is pretending to be president (winging it, because he never intended to actually DO anything as president—didn’t even plan to win, in 2016; just buff his brand) writes a fiction of itself as self-sufficient power center, which real powers isolate from their allied interaction, waiting dismissively to see the hold retire to a golf course permanently. It's a converse isolationism of a part from the gestalt (hole from substance)—The New Containment.
The Donanld is tired of playing president. He’ll lose the 2020 election, blame his base for disloyalty, shrug it off, and soon be forgotten.
4
Just disheartening that so many keep letting trump have his way. This man spoke the truth and we all know it. Raw power is taking this country down day by day.
9
Although I doubt he (Johnson) could be as bad as Trump, the scourge is spreading.
The only reasonable UK response would have to tell Trump to jump in a lake, and to retain the ambassador.
I'd like to see every ambassador to the U.S. release her or his unvarnished opinion of Trump.
3
Trump is in the White House and chances are Johnson will be moving into 10 Downing Street soon.
I expect political historians will have a fine old time discussing and dissecting how this came about. The questions and explanations will go on for years.
2
Boris Johnson, too, must know deep down that what the British ambassador said was completely true, and exactly what the next British Ambassador will be saying about Trump in private cables.
6
@American
As a Brit who has dealt with top secret matters, I am appalled that the Daily Mail published the information. It should be heavily fined for making the data public. The editor who decided it was to be published should be tried and jailed as should the reporter and his source. If they are not punished then secrecy of any sort can no longer be expected to remain viable.
6
The print version of the UK paper The Daily Mail, and its sister publication The Mail on Sunday, are what are described here as "upmarket tabloids" and are heavily right-wing.
As soon as I saw that these confidential cables had been leaked to The Mail my first thought was that this must be a set-up, confirmed a few days later by Boris Johnson's failure to support Mr Darroch or stand up to Trump.
Mr Darroch seems to have been pushed out to make way for an appointee sympathetic to Trump and Johnson ahead of what appears to be Johnson's ascent to Prime Minister.
I really do worry what this means for our countries, and what these two individuals will try and inflict on the rest of Europe and the world.
15
@katy890
Upmarket tabloids? No such thing.
Ambassador Darroch was simply doing his job, and incidentally many Americans including people from within the White House would probably agree with his assessment of Trump. But that’s beside the point. What is important now is that the resignation of the ambassador, Trump in effect considered him persona non grata, will not bring the whole episode to a close. A thorough investigation is underway to determine the source of the leak, and given the harm done to British diplomacy and to US British relations, the outcome of the investigation should be made public. Only then will both countries be able to move on.
18
A taste of what comes after Brexit and the UK is left with few friends and a "special relationship". They were, still are, well respected as a member of the EU but need to ditch the likes of Farage or even Johnson. Otherwise the Distractor in Chief will take over.
23
@ves: "were and still are" respected? Not in the last three years at least.
1
What is not mentioned in this article is that Sir Kim is a long serving and well respected U.K. diplomat and well regarded internationally in many circles.
Diplomats write memos and have always done so to be read, at times, confidentially by the leader(s) that sent them on their foreign mission. The real scandal is the leak itself and how it severely damages the U.K. Foreign Office, often regarded in the past as one of the most professional and well educated in the world.
37
@Marc Faltheim
Indeed. And what a lot of commentators on this forum fail to acknowledge - or even know - is that the UK Civil Service is staffed by career professionals.
And that applies to Diplomats too. These are not some whimsical political appointments. These are experienced people who have long resumés before they ever get to become head of a consulate, or embassy.
In contrast to the USA, where any billionaire/campaign contributor/toadie can become an ambassador. No experience required! It's been like that for a long time and, shockingly, the American public doesn't seem to care.
7
.
@Flower,
.
Please be informed the American public rejected presidential candidate Trump by a 2.8 million vote margin in favor of Hillary Clinton.
Recall Trump was elected president by ab 302 Electors of the Electoral College --- he needed a minimum of 270 votes.
The EC vote takes precedence over the popular vote in pres elections.
.
2
@Ken Lewis
I was talking about the diplomatic service!
Not about the American president: of whom we hear quite enough already.
Russia, if you're listening, find a way to leak Putin's assessment of Trump's intellectual acuity and the White House operations.
38
I hope America can repair its status as a reliable country post-Trump. But once a reputation is lost it is almost impossible to reclaim. Trump has indeed done America a major- perhaps disabling -disservice.
31
“Disservice”? That is quite the gentle way to describe this administration’s style: hostility, gaslighting, malevolence, braggadocio, bullying, and frat boy pranking as national policy. You can hear them snickering and congratulating themselves on their macho rogue moves.
5
The leaks were published in The Daily Mail, a London tabloid known for it's support of UKIP. Mark my words, the next UK ambassador to Washington will be, yes, you guessed it, Nigel Farage, " a very smart guy", according to president Trump. The three ring circus will be complete: Trump, Boris and Nigel!
29
@Hames, Daily Mail also supports Trump. It regularly takes down anyone who accuses Trump of wrongdoing.
2
Parliament won’t appoint the next prime minister. De Piffel Johnson is running against Jermey Hunt, the current foreign secretary; the electorate is Conservative party members, not MPs.
7
Donald Trump and Boris Johnson? God help us all.
25
'A comment from the State Department about Mr. Darroch’s departure on Wednesday blandly repeated its commitment to the special relationship. The two countries “share a bond that is bigger than any individual,” the statement said, “and we look forward to continuing that partnership.”'
That a funny statement from the State Department. Indeed, it is crystal clear that the "individual" in question is ... Donald Trump. This statement from his own administration is much more humiliating for the USA president than whatever any foreign ambassador might tell in confidential notes sent home.
13
There's a fine line between a focused effort by the current administration to keep foreign diplomats in the dark and simple ineptitude. These past three years leaves zero doubt.
13
Perhaps Congress, probably the H of R, should subpoena Mr Darroch and have him testify in a public hearing. It might be informative.
5
Most world leaders almost certainly agree with their ambassadors' view of Trump but are afraid to speak out, for fear of what he might do. Margaret Thatcher would have picked up the phone and given Trump an ear full, as she did to Reagan on one occasion.
11
What the Diplomat said was pretty much the US press was saying. In anticipation of the new leader in UK, someone leaked the information to get rid of the diplomat. It is validated by the new leader not supporting him.
21
So, Trump refuses to indict Putin. Johnson refuses to indict Trump. What the heck is going on here? It looks like a new Axis of Evil Idiocy is emerging from the ashes of what America and Britain, along with culpable allies, set alight. Trump abandoned US diplomacy long ago. Now, Johnson has shown the British diplomatic service where it stands. Putin uses the GRU for his version of diplomacy. How much power can men wrest from the state?
If Johnson becomes the next PM, it’s because a right wing conspiracy exists to upend liberalism, something that Putin has already gloated about. British fascists want him to conspire with American fascists, and they can all dance a balalaika jig to Russian fascists to whom they both pay homage.
If the rest of us don’t wake up soon, three buffoons are going to head a global reich.
29
@Marcus Brant "it’s because a right wing conspiracy exists to upend liberalism" -- yes indeed. They call it democratic vote in the UK. They voted for Brexit and pushed May out when she didn't deliver. That' can't be possible, right?
“They” voted narrowly for Brexit in a process that was influenced heavily by fraud. It was an advisory referendum only. Ms May made numerous mistakes. But she did deliver the only deal that was ultimately deliverable. It was rejected because the UK political class, especially Brexit supporters, are more comfortable in the world of spin than substance. This may work at home but it doesn’t work at all in the broader world. The U.K. has wasted so much time on domestic politics even since the referendum. Brexit in the form it was promised was a lie pure and simple. Ms May eventually accepted this and came up with a good deal for the U.K. which Parliament votes down repeatedly, and it’s various iterations, for different and diametrically opposed reasons. The U.K. is hopelessly divided and is clueless as to how to proceed
U.K. diplomats and senior officials, of vast experience, who warned exactly what happen with Brexit and who briefed on available options for negotiations with the EU were driven from office. And so we now have the blind leading the blind and in the case of the two remaining competitors in the Tory Party for PM, the “bland leading the bland”. This is what happens when you ignore the advice of experts with decades of experience in international negotiations and indulge in flights of fancy and ego.
12
@John R
Well said, John.
We have the truly Alician statement from May's government that investigation of the corrupt and fraudulent referendum isn't necessary because the vote was 'only advisory' - as well as the finding of the British Supreme court that HAD the vote had proper legal legitimacy, its result would have had to be annulled because of electoral fraud.
There you have it. When it suits the Brexiters, the 2016 vote is a cast iron mandate of the people's will and, should the law start to pry to much, it's nothing more than an harmless little opinion poll.
3
Who leaked, and why? What is the big picture?
7
As a retiree I find treatment of 12 million Seniors in UK simply deplorable. Fundings for their welfare is being cut all across the country and they are being made to make do with less calories and wait longer for buses in rural communities. All this because they have no meaningful representation in the Parliament.
Wonder if Mr. Darroch ever bother to learn that while US has only 5% of the Worlds population it also control the economies of the other 95% through Wall St. Consequently nations like Germany Japan France etc are totally subservience to American whims. Did he not know his whimsical performance would have terrible reverberations that resulted in a drop in value of British Sterling against US Dollars immediately.
In their pathetic system of government whatever happens to ordinary people of UK is of no concern to the likes of Mr. Dorrach and his class, we can only hope your future ambassador would take time out to learn a bit about how this society functions.
1
Diplomats living in a black hole, and that's where those career parasites belong. If they're not happy, they can always get a real, productive job.
1
Diplomats have been part of the civilised world literally forever. They are essential especially in today’s world. Your views are just more ignorant dismissing of what you clearly do not understand. This is also the problem of your President. The world and the office he has inherited was build on the painstaking work of his predecessors over many decades leading to the preeminence of the US in the world order. But he doesn’t get any of this or the subtleties involved and is busy destroying this complex and convoluted world in which the soft power of the US has been so influential. This increases the likelihood of unnecessary conflict. I suppose you hold the same views of intelligence officials?
Ironically your views buttress those expressed in the article where it is stated that the administration doesn’t understand the role and influence of diplomats and officials at very senior level. Of course this is to be expected when you place a egotistical businessman of limited ability, used to one to one negotiations in which he is personally involved, into the office of the President of the United States - one of the most demanding and complex multi-lateral roles in the world.
5
@Ronald Weinstein
What an extremely bizarre view of how the world works. How should countries talk to each other? By declaring war?
6
I am not sure why what Darrock has said is such a revelation. He only said what any person with a brain in their head already thinks. You don’t have to be a diplomat to know that the Trump is a disgrace to his office and his country and that his administration is a basket case. Of course, it is better if those thoughts are kept confidential and to play him like North Korea, China, Russia and Iran are.
39
Absolutely the most accurate description of Boris Johnson that I’ve had the pleasure of reading. I haven’t heard “lickspittle” in a long time. The Tories are certainly marching in line with the Republicans. A pox on the lot of them.
37
New Headline: Trump Destroys American Credibility Around the World; Trump Supporters Shrug.
Trump's supporters have absolutely no interest in "them furriners." They have been infected by his paranoid contention that the world is "out to cheat us." All, of course, except Putin, Kim. Duterte, Erdogan, Orban and any other dictator that he can cozy up to in private.
Diplomacy? Never heard of it. Have no use for it. It's all transactional. Simple, short-sighted and always, always losing.
So, yes, every ambassador in Washington knows about Trump. He is a fool, an idiot, a know-nothing. The way to get around him is to flatter him ceaselessly and tell him what a a great leader he is. Then one can take advantage of him.
This is the guy who prides himself as a "deal maker." But the world now knows that he is a total patsy.
God forbid we should have a war. The only thing worse than Trump in peacetime is Trump with his finger on the red buttton.
44
Trump should have acted as a real president would have : dignified silence.
His pathetic,spiteful, knee-jerk comments on Twitter are a perfect illustration of what Sir Kim Darroch privately wrote :
Trump is inept, will never look or act competently and is very,very unsure of himself.
It makes one wonder what Her Majesty thinks about Trump and family......Has Donald forgotten that he was a recently a guest in England?
30
Just one more example that in the age of Trump Common Sense is as quaint as the Geneva Conventions were for Rumsfeld.
13
Diplomatic communications are confidential, at the very least. Some are top secret. I deplore the focus on Trump and the Ambassador. The real threat is to the breaching of diplomatic security of documents. Diplomats must be able to trust their communications with their own governments and also to relate with their foreign counterparts. Protocols are in place and the elaborate etiquette of diplomatic relations are designed to allow such activities. Nobody likes Trump except his devoted base. That is a given, now. The real issue is who leaked diplomatic communications? Is this the first time diplomatic communications have been leaked? I think so. Was it someone in the British foreign affairs establishment? Again, if so, wouldn't it be the first time such a leak has occurred? Could it have been a foreign power? Seeing the reaction of the press and politicans on both sides of the pond is so discouraging. The immediate reaction should have been "no comment". Instead, this is like tossing peanuts at monkeys...the predicatable reaction is chaos in the scramble to grab a morsel.
19
“Sir Kim Darroch in 2017. Mr. Darroch often tried to reach out to the White House and the National Security Council, but he never quite felt that he broke into the Trump administration’s inner circle”
See he whined instead.
2
And what is it you think trump does on Twitter multiple times a day? Send out thoughtful tweets that don’t cause embarrassment to the majority of us? Or is it a full blown whine and squeal of self pity? Of course that you support that. Honestly one day I’m going to have an eye roll so awful that the pupils won’t make it back to the front. He really could kill someone on 5th a venue and you ppl would call it a suicide. 2017. The decline of a great country began. Signed and supported by the deplorables.
23
No he didn’t. He wrote as all diplomats do his candid observations on matters of interest to his nation. These observations were communicated in private. This is what Ambassadors have being doing since time immemorial. It’s their job. These observations were treacherously leaked. This is not whining. The fact that you reduce it to whining suggests that you share a great deal in common with your President.
7
Sir Kim was doing what he was supposed to do as a diplomat to report back to his government his opinions in confidence. He did not wrong.
18
You mean he did no whining
1
Trump has no idea what a diplomat does. Ambassador Darroch was doing his job, giving London his assessment of the host government.
Trump's reaction to the leak was ill advised, and those who advised him to mount his high Twitter horse against Darroch should be "eviscerated", to use Boris Johnson's term, in addition to those who leaked the Ambassador's confidential communication.
But for Boris Johnson not to stand by his Ambassador is indeed shameful. Should he become PM, heaven help us if this shameless man falls in cahoots with ours.
23
Since the Trump administration is a laughing stock to our allies, I wonder how much intel they are keeping from the US now. Reason #3,476 on why to have an adult president.
23
The Insulter- in - Chief continues to diminish America’s reputation with his lack of self-control and dignity.
20
Why the British ambassador in particular? Here’s a theory. We have been getting reports lately of how well the interviews with Christopher Steele have been going in the investigation into the origins of the Mueller appointment. He has been credible and even provided new information or insights. Trump hears of this and in his ‘hit back harder’ policy looks for how to hurt at least the British if not Steele himself. Some Trumpista in the British government helps out by releasing Darroch’s assessment, which also has the advantage of being a huge news distraction.
14
" definition of a classic Washington gaffe: He was caught in public saying something that is widely believed. "
Indeed! Lets reword that a bit: " definition of a classic Washington gaffe: He was caught tweeting something that is widely believed. "
I believe that such gaffes are why the NYTimes hates Trump and why the Left fears him.
@ Doug Macdonald,
You're mistaken. The left doesn't fear, the entire GOP trembles in his wake. They are the most fearfully complicit, spineless political party in history
They fear his ad hominem attacks so they remain silent.
29
Buy a dictionary. The left fears him? Disgusted by him and his ilk is more like it. You wish it were fear. No one fears bone spurs.
19
Do you think that a President who tweets about a leak which makes him look bad and draws international attention to it, instead of ignoring it and moving to another subject, is someone the “left” (is anyone anywhere who opposes President Trump) is fearful of?
I am more fearful of an “intellect” which sees a complex world so simply and places anyone who opposes the President into the “left” camp. This is like seeing the world as containing “good” or “bad” people. It’s an “you’re either with us or against us” mentality. All black and white. It’s the mentality of a child or a rebellious and immature teenager. It’s a mentality which embroiled the US in an entirely unnecessary war in the Middle East.
Can people please grow up and recognise that the world is multi-hued and that opinions are the same? We have to deal with the world as it is not how we would wish it to be if we were little children.
5
There has been quite a backlash on this side of the pond:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48941001
Bhaskar the Texan, below , is not alone, I'm sure, but hopefully in the minority. His ancestors stole Texas from Mexico but real Americans don't consist solely of white Anglos. In 50 years time, people like him will just be a whiney rump on the margins....
7
@Eric Jeffries
Eric, it was my ancestors that stole that hunk of Mexico back in 1848 at the end of in U.S's first imperialist war.
I may be wrong, but I'm guessing Bhaskar's Texas roots are shallow. Call me a name-profiler, but I'm also guessing that
it was your imperialist ancestors that ran roughshod over
Bhaskar's ancestors somewhere on the sub-continent before 1947.
Come on, Bhaskar, set us straight.
5
A large section of the media in Australia is owned by the same people who own Fox News if you dare to criticise Trump they won't publish your comment. Presenters on many of their shows on Sky News take up so much time on their shows endorsing Trump and sometimes they become almost hysterical about those who dare to challenge in anyway as they are clearly so wrong. In some ways it is just silly and in other ways it shows media control.
14
Sounds like most of the media here. If it’s fit to print as long as we agree with it
6
Trump is very thin skinned. The Ambassadors comments would have struck a nerve with him.
13
@Larry, exactly what Darroch was communicating--that Trump is insecure and needs to have his ego stroked.
2
They’re not alone!
4
Why is no one asking about the source of this "leak"? Not to be paranoid, but there are any number of players out there who would love to see the relationship between the U.S. and Great Britain break down.
14
@Retired, I was wondering the same thing. Putin would certainly be happy with this turn of affairs.
1
Another case of rude politicians being rude and blaming Trump for their behavior, naturally. Here's a foreign ambassador being obnoxious about our President, of course he should resign. I suppose after 8 years of no foreign policy under Obama, it must be annoying to have a President that actually acts, even if he does change his mind once in a while.
3
@DJOHN Be assured, President Obama was responsible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama#Foreign_policy
6
@DJOHN
Trump changes his mind once in a while? Are you kidding?
But to you it’s okay for Trump to call world leaders names?
21
DJOHN,
you must wake up with amnesia every morning if you can't recall all of the name calling and insults Trump has hurled at world leaders, politicians, women, fed chairman, CEO's, judges, FBI, CIA, athletes...
shall I continue? I think not.
17
He is supposed to be be a diplomat. This was not diplomatic.
2
@New York
It's not like he said it to Trump or any other individual. He wrote it in communiques with the Foreign Office. He's supposed to be informative in those dispatches, not diplomatic.
24
What he said was hearsay. Having known Russian diplomats, this is highly embarrassing.
2
@New York
And Trump is diplomatic? What a joke.
What about Trump’s undiplomatic response?
12
How dare the British government insult our "stable genius". You know that townhouse they call an embassy is in a good neighborhood and could be confiscated (that's what tyrants do) and converted into a Trump hotel. It would also be convenient for Ivanka to run the place, and Pence could be a bellboy.
19
The leaker should be tracked down and punished to the full letter of the law.
The Ambassador has nothing to apologise for...he was doing his duty in informing his Government of the state of play in the land he was stationed in: we can't have another "Peace in our time" situation.
20
Crude and rude Trump can give it but he can’t take it!
22
Being an ambassador in Washington from a normal country must be rated as a mission impossible
After allow how could you expect normal, decent, educated people to deal with what currently resides in the white house
16
The Redcoats are going. With the help of Airports and ramparts.
Sad.
13
First, Darroch is spot on. Second, Trump has contempt for governance, comity, rationality, history, and decency. The oroblem lies with us. Third, Boris is a lickspittle and he and Trump have a mutual admiration society. The rest of Europe abhors us, and for good reason. The American Century is over.
22
@Wolf
Europeans don't abhor us; they abhor the incompetent, uneducated boor our Electoral College appointed to the Presidency. He lost our vote by at least 3M votes. I was in Europe when Watergate broke; Europeans did not abhor us, rather they asked how it could happen in the country which aligned with Churchill and won WWII against fascism. They didn't think Nixon was stupid, or even malign. They saw him as an intelligent deeply flawed man with emotional problems who could never could with the much admired charming combat hero, JFK.
It is astonishing how a person who should never be president of the United States of America let alone be in public service continues to push people around and nobody sticks up for those telling the truth about this crisis.
I will say it again. He is a liar. He is a cheat. He is uneducated. He has no desire to learn. He is not curious. He sexually harassed and assaulted women. He does not care about the future. He does not care about me or you. He has no friends so does not know how to be a friend and nurture relationships ie. with our allies. He is not a successful business person. He is scared. He is weak. He is insecure. He has no respect for the law. He has no respect for how government functions.
Keep speaking out. Most USA voters know this is not a party issue this is about human decency and democracy. Keep speaking out.
48
"Boris Johnson’s pathetic lickspittle response is something that shames our country,” Any politician, like Emily Thornberry, who uses the word lickspittle correctly gets my vote. It is a perfect description of the Republican Party's response to Trump.
30
We need people to speak up and share their concerns and opinions of Trump whether they are ambassadors to our nation or citizens. We certainly can’t rely on most of our elected officials. It is astonishing to me how much he gets away with while most people who could have an influence turn a blind eye. Fearing only for themselves and not for the good of the United States and all of its citizens. This is our country to protect. We are losing on so many fronts that it will be nearly impossible to reshape the harm that this man has done. It is very frustrating to me to know that the little I can do will make no impact unless those on all sides of our government unite and start to speak out to save our country.
24
Once upon a time, when a message from Washington to Paris took three months, ambassadors had a useful function. Read up on Franklin in Paris
No longer.
It is hard to feel sorry for Mr. Darroch. This is what he stated officially about Trump
“I have met him seven or eight times and always found him to be absolutely charming,” says Darroch. “What I find about this administration is that they are mostly anglophiles and always good at hearing contrary opinions.”
FT , 10/24/2018
And that is what Mr. Darroch does
Last year, the British Embassy hosted 790 “socials” — breakfasts, lunches, dinners, seminars, coffee mornings and cocktail parties. Darroch attends about 90 per cent of them. Some are briefing events for visiting British ministers, who tend to come in flurries during breathers in the parliamentary schedule. Others are grand soirées.
They say Washington is Hollywood for ugly people. Half of the stars seem to gather at the British residence for its New Year’s Eve party. Last year’s included several cabinet principals, senior White House staff and television anchors. Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, are regular guests at the residence. "
FT, 10/24/2018
The US regularly hands out ambassadorships to reward large donors. London and Paris are the top prizes
The real work is done by the staff, paid far less.
Oh how little you understand. Diplomats are needed more than ever in the modern world. The world may be smaller but it’s very smallness leads us to believe that we know others better than before and that they are like us. They aren’t. Diplomats, the best of them, obtain information and insights otherwise unobtainable or hidden in a world of white noise and information overload. They provide information on the personalities and motivations of powerful decision makers. They form alliances and wield influence. Sometimes immense influence and they trade secrets and information in return for the same. In a world of nuclear weapons and in the Information Age they remain utterly indispensable. One could equally argue for the very same reasons, using your logic, that intelligence operatives were more useful in olden times than they are today. Hence we don’t need intelligence operatives. It’s nonsense. The job of diplomats is to help their states navigate the world and decode and influence the motivations and decisions of other powerful actors. That hasn’t changed.
2
@John R
We are navigating a world where the corrupt Netanyahu threatens peace in the ME; MBS threatens peace in the ME, and is able to murder and dismember a Saudi dissident who was a resident in the U.S.; Trump had a problem believing his own Intelligence Agency about the source of that murder. Seasoned diplomats were ignored and moved aside by an Exxon businessman, Tillerson. General Mattis, a sophisticated man of the world, resigned rather than represent a feckless Administration. Now we have the sewer bubbling up from Trump's association with Epstein. AG Barr's father had to resign his post at the Dalton School due to his hiring of Epstein. We can continue to sink lower, or we can start sweeping out the muck in Congress.
Let's keep Darroch and get rid of Trump, now that's a good deal!
21
Trump runs the country like he ran his businesses: Straight into bankruptcy.
34
President Trump is not a politician...he is a business man who wants to get things done...when you see the establishment against him...it means he is doing his job...as an American I want a President who puts our country first...not what foreign nationals want!!!
1
A leader that runs his or her country like a business can’t think very highly of their country or its people. There’s a lot more to it than balancing a profit/loss ledger.
17
When my father was still alive, he told me never vote for a businessman for public office--they are dictatorial and rarely listen to contrary advice. Then he added, this country has had one businessman as President, Herbert Hoover and he was a disaster, among the worst if not the worst President ever.
My Dad was a businessman himself. He died before W was elected and now we have Trump.
I miss my Dad, especially his sage counsel.
9
The rest of the world mocks the U.S., for they are the only ones with the fortitude to utter the truth: our emperor wears no clothes.
33
The leak probably came from the Trump administration. Our president probably needed more things to tweet about and his staff dug something up for him to rant about on Twitter. The Ambassador should be commended for his truthfulness. Trump doesn't pay any respect to diplomats, only other leaders who are bullies like himself.
14
Donald Trump -- the world's most delicate and fragile SNOWFLAKE.
He can certainly spew endless twitter insults, but HE CAN'T TOLERATE the mildest of criticism.
When is this CLOWN SHOW going to end???
If djt ever had the courage to venture out to a public venue, like a major league baseball game, he would have a melt down over what the American public would shout at him.
Pathetic.
45
If ambassadors dont like trump or means he's doing his job of dealing from America's strength and keeping America's interests first. Something that hasn't happened for the past few years before him. That's a good thing. The only people who talk about "compromise" and "working together" are the people who are in the weaker position.
2
@bored critic
“Like” wasn’t the character of the correspondence. “Intelligence” and “capabilities” were the focus, both of which are very lacking in the current occupant of the White House.
34
So “compromise” and “working together” are for the weak? Your comments are provincial and display an astonishing lack of self awareness. The reason America has been so dominant is precisely because it has indulged in these two activities with its allies and its enemies. Your desire to display “strength” in a world where the US is competing with other powerful actors is the road to conflict and ruin. Strength has many forms. Until recently the US displayed this mainly through soft power using the two above qualities which you so despise. The ability to wield soft power so effectively is the epitome of “strength”. What Trump is actually doing is displaying weakness masquerading as strength. Mainly his personal weaknesses. He is easily manipulated. And he is weakening not strengthening the US. But like Putin you appear only to admire the illusion of strength. You want the US to be admired. To be feared. The tragic thing is the US used to be admired for all the right reasons. And thus when it used its strength it was genuinely feared. Now it is run by a preening man child.
6
If the Conservative Party goes ahead and, as is fully anticipated, anoints Boris Johnson to become the UK's next Prime Minister, the good people of that nation can expect more kowtowing from their government officials to our "stable genius". Sad!
20
@steffie: The global verdict on Brexit is written in the plunge of the value of the Pound Sterling.
5
Its not surprising that foreign ambassadors and foreign leaders find Trump incompetent. He IS incompetent and boorish and everything that you expect a leader to not be! That the US has someone like Trump as its leader says a lot about the American people - willfully ignorant and whining that the country and the world are changing too fast for their liking. Well, by the time Trump supporters catch up it will be too late for them!
27
@Sudha Nair: Trump's mob is still angry that the Rapture didn't happen in 2000, but they're banking on it happening in 2032.
7
It's happening daily at 1400 Pennsylvania ave
2
Contrary to most people's thoughts, Donald Trump getting elected was not the scariest thing. The scariest thing to think about are the tens of millions of people who love him.
45
please. can all ambassadors sign a letter to this effect
7
What an inept and scary Administration we have. They eschew diplomacy and humiliate our allies. They seem to be acting more like traitors than as partners toward democracy in general. When do we call the amateurish and boorish behavior of this dreadful administration what it is: a coup.
21
If disparaging remarks are grounds for resigning...trump should have resigned two years ago
33
Let's be clear. The real scandal here is that someone "leaked" highly sensitive diplomatic cables. I trust that the British government is launching a comprehensive investigation into this shocking abrogation of security and communication standards. The coward -- or criminals -- who leaked these cables should, at best, be fired and publicly vilified. And they should be fully investigated for potential foreign influence (Russia, hello?). It is a disgrace. If, as several commentators suspect, the leak is due to pro-Brexit politicians who wanted to clean house in Britain's foreign office, it sets a dangerous precedent for the world.
30
@Norman Potential foreign influence?
Putin-Trump-Boris Johnson-Farage.
4
Foul, all of it. Darroch was doing his duty as ambassador and Trump had no business forcing this issue (as if..._
21
It is stunning that a life long civil servant who is (despite what Trump says) quite popular in Washington was forced to resign after cables were leaked. The response from the UK should have been for the US "to butt out." It would have been a powerful statement to the world regarding sovereignty and a commonly held rule of diplomacy that goes back centuries.
Sadly his resignation confirms the bullying belief that Donald Trump can tell countries who to send to the US. It is hypocritical and wrong. You don't need to be an ambassador to know that Darroch's evaluations are accurate, widespread and commonly agreed to. You just need to have a head.
45
So true and also the weakness of the U.K. in the Brexit era. A mid sized country recognising his alone and friendless they are.
1
Twitter is a public company now with a Market value of $26 billion USD. What happens to the Whitehouse preferred communication platform if a Chinese, Indian, Russian or other European company buy it? Even North Korea or Foxtel or Disney could afford it.
Anything that comes out of the Whitehouse could be censored, changed or wrongly attributed.
8
Julia Boyd's excellent "Travellers in the Third Reich" documented how British officials contorted themselves in the 1930s to appease a vain, insecure dictator. When the history books are written about this period, Ambassador Darroch will stand tall.
30
@JR
what they did not want was another blood bath ala 1914 and what they got was time to build up the RAF and RN to save the UK from naval invasion and defeat the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain.
What was lost were nations. It’s hard to face down a bully once you have conceded the power.
@stewart
Neville Chamberlain allowed Nazi Germany to annex Austria, invade Czechoslovakia, invade Poland and kill millions.
It’s pathetic that anyone defends Neville Chamberlain. I don’t know what would have happened had Chamberlain taken a stance, but one thing is certain many of my family died in concentration camps. For that I will never forget and never forgive anyone who allowed it to happen or negotiated with Hitler, including Chamberlain.
4
Trump totally had this all planned. Trump wants Boris to be the next Prime Minister who is an alt right like Trump; however Kim Darruch is more of a centrist which doesn't work for Boris. Therefore--Kim had to go--it's that simple. Typical Trump--take over the world--he's already turned the GOP into the Trump Party; he obstructs; deflects; denies; lies; and thinks he is above the law. The Constitution means nothing to him and his swamp.
15
@will smith Brits call Boris a "British Trump."
Boris is a "No deal Brexit". Farage was an architect of Brexit. Kim got in a way of that pushing for Brexit quartet (where Putin is a forth (or first)).
5
Let the records show: Boris Johnson was unwilling to defend his ambassador whose only "crime" was telling the truth. What an embarrassment for Britain.
39
How is it possible that Christine Lagarde was forced to sit next to Robert Kraft a prominent Trump ally, who has been charged along with other male business executives with soliciting prostitution at a Jupiter, Florida massage parlor and spa, while attending a star-studded state dinner in honor of Qatar's emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani at the Treasury Department on Monday night.
Can't imagine the polite chat between this two.
The world is hanging upside down.
https://www.businessinsider.com/bob-kraft-attends-state-dinner-qatari-emir-with-trump-lagarde-2019-7
9
@faivel1
Punishment for the side eye?
It's fairly straightforward: Some operative inside the government leaked the memo to get rid of Sir Kim, all to spare PM-to-be Boris Johnson the embarrassment of having to fire a senior civil servant with vastly more stature than himself, and opening the way for Mr. Johnson to appoint a knavish replacement like Nigel Farage.
21
It will take a long time for future administrations to undue the damage Trump and his gang of yes men are doing to your country ‘s standing in the world. That’s assuming that there is transition to some more normal state of affairs in the near future.
23
@Makidadi
You are absolutely correct. I predict it will take a least 3, if not more generations, to undo the the profound damage this man and his cronies have done to America. God help our children and grandchildren.
9
It may still be - the campaign season is still young...
4
How about that, when we thought that in this chaotic political environment no agreement can be reached on anything? How about the consensus among well educated folks in the 'diplomatic world', where there seems to be unanimity that Trump is an imbecile, unable to sit still and listen to reason and common sense?
20
It’s a sad day when people get fired for telling the truth.
38
Yes.
7
Am I the sole person who has remarked on the rather close resemblance physically and politically between Trump and Boris? Is it also a coincidence that "Boris" has a Russian name? What goes with the UK?
15
Good point! Bravo!
3
Donald Trump represents America. He won the election. The foreign diplomats know this. The nation, under his leadership, does not have any allies except Saudi Arabia, UAE and Israel. That’s it.
10
This situation reminds me of the exhibit of complicity at the National Holocaust Museum several years ago. I was so struck by how expertly and systematically the 3rd Reich shut down its allies, silenced its citizens and wore down its detractors. This is absolutely happening again. Right before our eyes. This is the hard stuff, this is where we need to stand in front of him and say, no more. Not here. Never again.
29
Those darn foreigners are still mad at us for taking over their airports during the Revolutionary War. They don't know nuthin.
29
@JP. Thanks for making me smile.
2
How Great Britain's powers have been diminished. Now President Trump decides who the British Ambassador will be. It is heartbreaking.
11
This comes as no real surprise. The election was pushed towards Trump with he knowledge that he was ignorant, incurious, and would create chaos for his foreign and corporate sponsors, with American alliances a casualty. This was right up Putin's alley of revenge for the collapse or his true parents, the Soviet Empire, and the GOP's total amorality.
If a reader learned 20th-century European history, and remembers it, it all looks so familiar: Hitler's Germany "shopping" for traitors from 1933-1944, and Trump and the GOP taking on the roles of Quisling and the various puppet regimes of the occupied territories. We even have concentration camps for demonized "illegal immigrants" instead or Jews, Gypsies, etc., privatized to sympathetic "contributors" for profits, where the original concentration and murder camps cost money.
The British and French ambassadors knew what they saw. Boris Johnson, disrespecting Ambassador Darroch, proves that he's also working against our 70-year-old alliances with his hard-Brexit stance.
25
Trump (day one): "You all are a bunch of brilliant people and you're hired."
Trump (day two or three): You're all a bunch of morons and you're fired."
Back to the golf course. Repeat.
13
If we take a careful step back and judiciously consider these latest events and, most important, their timing, we would smell a bad fish in this current bruhaha.
Consider that this leak was so timely, just as Boris Johnson is being ordained the next PM and would take the UK out of the EU at any cost, thereby harming the EU immeasurably as well as damning the UK. This was NOT some coincidental thing, this was a timely, well orchestrated damning event for the greatest impact to a nefarious end.
Follow the money; who would benefit from this outcome? Then to, who would have the known assets in place to gain access to all the documents, secret and otherwise, that flow in and out of DC daily?
Reasoned thinking would lead to Putin/Russia. Putin can't begin to expand Russia as he would like if there is a strong and united EU. With the US and UK in his pocket, he could continue his onslaught of the EU. Having a sound diplomat to advise and counter Boris Johnson as PM, would be dangerous to Putin's interests, so he had to go.
Yes, Ambassadors, anyone of you might have been targeted had you been a stumbling block in the way, but you were not, Amb. Darroch was, so he is now removed.
What is the outcome? The Master Plan of Mr Putin is known only to a very few in his closest circle but you can be sure, it does not bode well for democracy and rule by the fairly elected.
As Mr. Michael Bloomberg stated so well, “Heaven help us.”
14
SAD. No class or self control! "Stupid?", he said. Pot calling kettle...
4
If only Ambassador Darroch had booked an extended stay in a suite at the Trump International Hotel. He might not have been subjected to Trump’s criticisms and his country would not be in disfavor in America.
Note to all Ambassadors: you will have to buy access to the Trump administration and one of the ways to do so is by generously patronizing Trump’s businesses.
12
It is a shame about the loss of a good ambassador’s departure and loss of an excellent person from the British government.
But it borders on hilarious if anyone doubts the view of Mr. Trump is shared not only by other ambassadors in Washington, but in most world capitals by every person with a brain.
Further, surveys by Pew and Gallup indicate very strongly that Trump receives exceptionally low marks among foreign populations, his approval ratings above 50 percent in only four Countries - Namibia, Kenya, the Philippines and Israel. His disapproval in Ireland is above 80 percent (approval only 14%) the UK 70+ percent. He is widely disliked.
Respect for the United States is also affected but not anywhere near as severely. And President Obama still has sky high approval ratings, e.g. in Ireland where his approval is higher than Trump’s disapproval.
When we travel people don’t usually talk American politics. There was some during the Iraq war, negative but restrained. Admiration for Ibama was obvious.
In the case of Trump, he is seen as an oaf, an incompetent fool. Ironically, he is sometimes the spur to conversation about Obama. Genuine and sometimes leading to a dismissal if Trump.
The world in places where it matters knows that we have an idiot in the White House. They talk quietly about it. But there is no respect for him.
16
Poor guy. If he had reported to the British government that Trump was a "stable genius," he would have been fired for insanity.
14
Trump is a dictator with no education on the finer things in life or in the fine points of collaboration, or in anything that has subtlety.Trump is a bull in the china closet dictator. He has the higher consciousness of a lump of coal. What did they expect? When ignorance and thuggishness meet reason and intelligence, nothing translates. Nothing at all. There is a vacuum. That's Trump, the vacuum.
25
@joyce. Well at least a vacuum has a purpose and trump has absolutely nothing to offer
7
For me, the Trump administration's view of continuing that "special" relationship looks a lot like vassal and lord. The lord is displeased and the vassal must go.
7
the British Ambassador was merely echoing the observations of Trump's inner circle including Steve Bannon, Rex Tillerson, James Mattis and John Kelly.
22
If someone wrote a novel about the US and UK does anybody think the 2 main characters could be as silly and unrealistic as Boris and Donald. This is like a cosmic bad joke.
29
@John Smithson. Why is equivalency to the Obama administration the first defense utilized by Trumpers (and Trump) when his administration makes a misstep? Stand up and face the truth and consequences like responsible, mature adults.
10
The ambassadors are not getting what they want from Trump? Good. I am sure that the British would rather have Trump be another Neville Chamberlain and be a patsy. Obama was Neville and they were getting used to it. Now they have a president who actually puts the US first. Get used to this now.
2
@Jim Trump is no Neville Chamberlain. Chamberlain despised Hitler but knew that Britain was neither psychologically nor materially prepared for war. Hitler was not bluffing. He fully expected the Sudeten crisis to end in war, had ordered the German armed forces to prepare for it and was disappointed when deprived of it. Chamberlain elected to buy time and accelerated rearmament. No, Trump is no Chamberlain. He is more like Charles Lindbergh, though without the courage. Lindbergh, you may recall, admired Hitler, led the America First movement and dismissed calls to stand up to Hitler as the work of globalists. No, Jews. Lindbergh said "Jews."
9
I don't really feel Trump is putting me first, or anyone else other than himself.
15
Donald Trump puts violent white nationalists and other vile bigots and anti-Semites first. That’s what his supporters like about him.
9
If the Trump supporters would open their eyes to other countries they would see several things. First, there are wonderful places to live outside of the US. Second Trump is looked at as a joke in those countries. Last, no one can understand how Trump has so many supporters.
29
And lastly lastly, lot of them are clamoring to come here, while people here are staying put. (not including the Californians leaving for Texas)
1
And more Americans moved overseas in the last two than in any other time. Don’t fool yourself...we are in crisis.
5
No Europeans are moving here. They are amazed we would freely elect such an ignorant man! Have you been overseas since Trump was elected?
7
At least the British Ambassador had the class and grace to resign. American politicias rarely show such dignity. Trump should be embarrassed, except he is incapable of shame.
14
Refreshing to read his analysis, probably the last honest (and accurate) thing we'll read coming out of Washington D.C. for some time. Regrettable that his own threw him to the dogs--says more about them than him. Let's hope this is not the last we hear of him. I wish him well.
10
We've all known right along the whole cabal is incompetent. Why should it be a secret?
10
I was going to try and write a pithy, witty response to this article, but when I went to check into the readers comments, the total comments had numbered 666, which made me think- has anybody close to Trump taken a good look underneath that joke of a comb-over to see if those numbers are imprinted on his head? Wouldn’t surprise me if they are…
14
Everyone knows that Trump and his administration are inept. Everyone knows that Trump is extremely insecure and thin skinned, and at the same time an egomaniac.
This is common knowledge - I don't see why anyone would resign over stating such. I don't even think that people who are wholly engrossed in the FOX propaganda bubble honestly believe that trump is intelligent or a competent leader.
16
Sir Darroch is the only one that got caught...simple as that.
7
Darroch's only fault was being far too nice. Publiusaudax.com has ripped Trump to shreds for years for us all to see. Trump is far too afraid to respond. He would never do to Publius what he did to Darroch. He doesn't have anything like what it takes. He only goes after easy hits.
5
@Greg
I think Trump does everything on purpose.
In this case “playing dumb” is on purpose.
4
@Lisa If you run an 8th Grade English teacher test on Don's August 15, 2016 piece on national security you will find in a few minutes that Don is too intellectually incontinent to do anything on purpose. That's the problem.
4
I’m too discouraged to even respond to this piece on Trump though I love the NYT.
4
Poor Trump, let's have a pity party.
8
“Trump’s lickspittle”
Brilliant description not only of Boris Johnson but of all DJT’s enablers in the GOP.
Trust the Brits to come up with something so apropos.
24
@Vinnie Szabo
I first read it in one of Dickens' novels. Such a perfect descriptive word. So apt for Miller, McConnell, his wife, and a few other prominent GOP pols.
Well the bully in the White House thumbs his nose at the world again, after his extremely fragile ego
is bruised by the truth. And the truth is that the emperor has no clothes and when called out, he has his predicable tantrum and the heads roll. But the truth remains and he is the same ignorant, lying, capricious, misogynist, draft dodging, cheat as he always had been. And he surrounds himself with same sort of people that reflect his total incompetence at everything except cheating other people.
15
Well, one day Trump’s head may roll. What goes up must come down. Pride cometh before a fall.
6
The entire world simply cannot wait for Americas lying, racist, conman to be de-throned. But shhhhhh........King Trump doesn't know that.
17
Small point first. While Americans do not recognize “titles of nobility internally, foreign Nations do, and would expect their citizens to be addressed properly . The article should not therefore call him Mr Durroch but Sir Kim
More important Sir Kim was doing exactly what his post demanded, informing his government of the state of affairs. His only “crime” was failing to prevent his comments being leaked and he himself would only have found out about it after the publication.
Trump’s reaction was exactly as expected, to attack the critic personally. So our relationship with an “ally” is damaged. Funnily enough, you know what would have really helped agains Iran and China, alliance with Europe! Instead he stabbed Europe and Britain in the back by reneging on the Iran deal, and got into a trade war with Europe rather than enlisting them to our side against China.
And I challenge this Administration to show it is either well-organized or ept ( that should be the opposite of inept!)
9
"The article should not therefore call him Mr Durroch but Sir Kim"
The Times is following its stylebook convention that after the first use of a name, with full title, an abbreviated name is used.
See: "The New York Times manual of style and usage" by Allan M. Siegal and William G. Connolly.
See, also, the Wikipedia article titled: "Style guide".
The English honors system is designed to keep people in their place and so perpetuate the English class system. It is a national disgrace and out of keeping with modern times with all its references to the now extinct British Empire. Politicians and other public officials get them automatically and the rest are mostly entertainers who the Queen likes because she saw them on TV. Others receive them for making donations to political parties. It's corrupt to the core and should be replaced
And yet why isn't Trump held accountable for his blatant name-calling and negative descriptions of specific people? A weak Congress?
16
Putin is wiping the floor with the world... he's about to own top leaders in Italy, Brazil, the US and now Britain.
I know I'm missing countries... but this is a masterwork. History books are going to be writing more about Putin and any other world leader of this era.
12
We know that, Mr. Darroch! It could have been any diplomat, for sure. But it wouldn't have been one of We The People, because we're not that diplomatic, and our remarks would never be printed except in personal emails sharing with armies of like-minded friends and associates of real values and equal rage.
Lucky you. Truly!
2
How many high level people have to point out the obvious before tRumps low info base finally understands the emperor ain’t wearing any close? Answer- there is no limit to the number. It is a cult.
8
To be fair,has this gentleman Kim Derroch recently looked at his own country and found it doing wonderfully unlike Trump’s America ?He very much reminds one of Christopher Steele !
I hope no country decides to veto our choice of ambassador.
2
When there is a "nobody matters but us" attitude, arrogance happens. Hopefully it will never get to a point where our at one time fiercest allies will say enough or the very worst, a turn to consummate alliances with murderous autocrats.
3
Mr. Darroch served his government well. His candid assessments of Trump's dysfunctional government were in line with those of many journalists at the time. Too bad Trump so narcissistic that he cannot just shrug this off like an adult, in the same way our allies had to shrug off unflattering comments in the US diplomatic cables disclosed by Wiki-Leaks a few years ago.
6
Ms. May needs to quickly appoint a new ambassador before Boris Johnson takes over and acts as a lackey of Trump.
10
His remarks (while expressed in very nice ironic tone and oxford English) didn’t strike me as particularly insightful or novel. If that’s the kind of insight the Uk government receives from its most senior officials, they will get the same and better by reading nyt or some random news blog.
4
@Me The comments that were publicized were only a fraction of the Ambassador's actual assessments and were clearly selected by the leaker to cause an uproar.
10
Agree...anything we didn’t all know about DT, though?
4
No surprise in Sir Kins's assessment, nor that it is widely shared by ambassadors from democratic countries (and not doubt shared by diplomats from Israel and Saudi Arabia, but who see Trump as a useful fool).
Any person of reasonable intelligence can perceive the gross incompetence of Trump and his administration. And certainly these ambassadors are people of reasonable intelligence.
8
This episode proves a terrible reality .... Trump can bully and lie all he wants, and get away with it, but honest critique about Trump by others is taboo ... a "disgrace" and forbidden.. It's a very, very, very sad day for America and for the world.
8
I suspect there are few countries in the world, including and perhaps especially Russia, China and North Korea, that don't consider Trump a classless buffoon, a powerful but clueless nincompoop who can be coddled, flattered and then manipulated.
Mr. Darroch had the misfortune of putting on paper (electronically) what every other diplomat was careful not to say within earshot of the president.
How many more questionable men and women will be given elevated appointments in this administration, and how many honorable men and women will be damaged before we see the end of this reign of shameful self-aggrandisement?
3
Unlike US ambassadors, EUROPEAN ambassadors are picked for their skills and knowledge after a lifetime of foreign or security service to their respective countries and are expected to give unvarnished reports to their governments l. That is simply their job. Here in the US we insult other countries by sending campaign contributors to such posts. Who expects Woody Johnson (billionaire, Trump supporter and US ambassador to the UK) to give an unvarnished opinion to the US Administration? This has being going on for decades. Seriously, if you give two to three hundred thousand to a campaign and your guy wins, you could request to be ambassador to a small country like Ireland, Iceland various African countries or the Baltic’s etc. A million or so gets you the bigger countries. It is also true that unlike European countries, the State Dept does not allocate significant funds for entertaining, hence, our representative in the UK (and in most other large countries such as France, Italy, Germany, Japan etc) have to fund those expenses from their personal fortunes. In London over the past five years, that averaged in excess of $40 million a year.
5
Keith, seems odd to me that European governments send skilled and knowledgeable people to be ambassadors to the US when, as we can see from this article, they have little to do and little opportunity to get anything to report back home. Kim Darroch seems to have done nothing of any import the whole time he was here other than send back unwise words that got leaked.
Ambassadors had some usefulness back in the days when communications and travel were slow and tedious but today seem to be more trouble than they are worth.
2
I believe the man. Trump is a sociopath and thus a liar. I am sorry he had to resign.
18
I see Ambassador Sir Kim Derroch as victim of Trump Derangement Syndrome. His fate was his own making. Mr. Derroch had become a victim of his own beliefs that were clearly proven false. But surely, he will not be the last─
7
@ChandraPrince
Everything the ambassador said is clearly true for all to see, not a secret. How anyone doesn’t see it is shocking.
14
If Trump derangement syndrome is another name for seeing him for what he is then the more the better.
3
@LFK
Mr. Darroch said exactly the same things in his cables what Mr. John Kerry and Mr. Joe Biden said about President Trump at Davos. And all in the leftist elite assumed Mr. Trump’s administration will not last. Just like the media here and in UK assumed. And Mr. Kerry and Mr. Biden assured the perennial elite friends at Davos that they will be back in power soon. But by how? First, by the force of the nasty leaks to the media about President Trump will sway the public opinion. And coupled with the Mueller Inquest itself ─ will trap and take down Mr. Trump legally. So it seems─ Kim Derroch wrote in his cables same kind of “leaked” fiction about Trump Administration. And as presumptuous Mr. Kerry, conducting American diplomacy on his own, told the Iranians not to feel discouraged. Ambassador Derroch wasn’t certainly providing UK Government with unvarnished truth. He was a victim of false information, which he had simply repeated. Naturally what he said did not come true, because they were false to begin with, but the nastiness remained. Our media is slowly getting sober and have stopped calling Mr. Trump a spy and a traitor! The declining rating will force the fake-news to turn around completely or go bust.
The Daily Mail is the organization that needs to apologize to Mr. Darroch.
10
The name calling, illegitimate fake president,.. "Dishing it out, but can't take it" disgrace,....making a fool of himself for all the world to see, Again !
11
It could have been any of us, after all, disdain for ambassadors runs deep among us all. Right? You are all such prima donnas. To think you do not despise elected officials, please. Do we have to play the part of fools also?
3
It's simple really, intelligent people know what, seemingly, 42% of Americans refuse to admit, the man is an idiot. The fact that that fact could escape someone, after three years of what's been on display, makes me wonder how close we are to the tipping point of idiocracy.
19
Rick Gage, the results seem to belie your claims of idiocy. Take North Korea, for example. Barack Obama told Donald Trump when he first took office that North Korea worried him most. In two years Donald Trump went from exchanging insults with Kim Jong Un to a firm friendship and the Korean peninsula is more peaceful than it has been for 70 years.
The US economy too is humming along. Peace and prosperity. If idiocy brought us all this, then I'll take idiocy over brilliance any time.
2
NK continues churning its nukes just like always. All Trump has achieved is a couple of photo-ops for his election portfolio to fool people like yourself.
As for peace, let’s see how that fares with Iran, which by the way was completely peaceful and compliant until 45 decided to mess with it.
2
Don Upildo, the point with North Korea is that they are no longer bellicose or belligerent. They know no one is going to attack them. They know that China, Russia and South Korea can't give them what they want.
They know that only peace will work, and that their nuclear weapons are worthless except as a bargaining chip that they will need to give up eventually. As I said, the Korean peninsula is more peaceful now than it has been for 70 years.
As to Iran, the point there is that they were far from being peaceful but instead bankrolled terrorism and war. We had lifted sanctions and could do nothing to fight against Iran's efforts. That they were complying with restrictions on their nuclear program meant nothing as far as peace is concerned.
1
Disdain for Trump is global. Only his cult followers and the corrupt toadies in Congress like him. The rest of us, and the world, despise him.
Trump is a monster.
18
When an honest man appears anywhere near this administration, all the dunces ride up in confederacy against him.
7
This episode has revealed the narrow-minded attitude of President Trump. A lot of honest ambassadors think as the same way as Darroch. If President Trump were a competent leader, he would have utilize Darroch’s words to reorganize his administration. But President Trump just dealt with the ambassador’ words emotionally. Quite a few people around the world are disappointed at the Trump’s attitude.
6
Matsuda, I think it better to judge the competency of leaders by results rather than style. Compare, for example, the leaders of the UK and the US.
Theresa May has resigned her office after losing a key vote in Parliament by a larger margin than any other prime minister. She failed completely to deliver on the most important issue the UK was facing.
Donald Trump has achieved success both in the US and with foreign countries. The economy is humming along at a brisk pace. Overseas the example of North Korea shines brightest. Though more is needed, the Korean peninsula is more peaceful than it has been for 70 years.
Both leaders have their own personal style, but that doesn't matter much. Results do matter. The contrast is stunning.
Donald Trump does not want to win a world popularity contest. Nor should he. He worries about doing what's best for America. Not because of selfishness, but because other countries should be able to look out for their interests as well.
5
Trump has made a show of accomplishing something when in reality he’s done little but inject uncertainties into the world economy. He has no vision except to ruin the hard work of others. Nothing has been accomplished with China, North Korea or Iran except a bunch tweets and walk backs. Your characterization is tragic.
9
Aren't ambassadors anachronistic anyway? They don't seem to do much of anything anymore beyond socializing. What has Kim Darroch done during his time in Washington DC? Seems his reputation for throwing parties and cabling back insults is the main extent of it.
That's pretty normal these days. I mean, look at who Barack Obama appointed to be ambassador to Japan -- Caroline Kennedy. The only reason she was appointed was because she threw the Kennedy name behind Barack Obama early on. Her only act of any substance was to state in a tweet that the US condemns the slaughter in Japan of dolphins for food, which was news to everybody else.
I'm not too familiar with what goes on in world capitals these days so maybe I'm missing a lot of good things that ambassadors do. Maybe someone like Jon Huntsman in Moscow now and in Beijing under Barack Obama does more than just socialize and schmooze. Maybe behind the scenes he is moving mountains.
But I read a lot, and I've never seen anything of import anywhere. If I've been missing some things, please let me know. If ambassadors haven't become just as useless in our modern age as royalty, I'd be surprised.
1
@John Smithson The current U.S. ambassador to Australia is Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr. His most noticeable achievement? Being the lawyer who helped vet Vice President Pence for the Trump campaign team.
3
"...Boris Johnson, who this month is likely to become Britain’s next prime minister, notably declined during a televised debate to defend the diplomat and also refused to criticize President Trump..." [op cit]
--
If Mr. Johnson does become the PM, then I think we're going to find, "that Boris is as beholden to Donald as Donald is to Vladimir." [my caption]
--
To me, this means that if the majority of the British people have the same opinion of Trump as Sir Kim does, then the Conservatives are going to be, "big losers," in the next electoral go-around.
--
And if the Democrats retake Washington in 2020, and the Labour Party also regains power in Britain, then I think things will get back to normal between the US and the UK.
--
The big "lesson," for both sides, "is that Donald Trump is an aberration in the American political scheme of things, that the voters will never allow to happen again." [my caption]
6
Don’t you think this president is a tragic reaction to the first black man as president with the rise of white supremacy?
3
"On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called Mr. Darroch and suggested that maybe it would be better if the British envoy reversed his plans to attend a small dinner..."
Seriously, Mnuchin did this? Is he not the Treasury Secretary, or does the post he has also include being the White House concierge or event planner? Who did he call to fill the empty spot? It underscores the chaos whirling around this joke of an administration. And well done Mr Darroch - you had an obligation to the government of the UK and you carried it out clearly and objectively.
11
@Ratty
Perhaps Mnuchin, the foreclosure king, threatened to close and repossess the British Embassy. No doubt, his dinner parties are hot ticket items as he is known to be very clever and witty.
The only good thing to come out of this incident is the shaming of Boris Johnson, except that Johnson, like Trump, has no shame or sense of decency. But we can still gloat in the temporary humiliation.
5
The ambassador was just doing his duty to report the state of affairs at the top of the nation to which he was assigned. His problem came of the fact that hit was leaked.
6
It seems to me that some of these diplomats are not so diplomatic.
The ones who put this stuff in writing seem to lack btains as well.
2
Trump and his supporters think that they can intimidate the rest of the world into accepting their distorted perception of reality, viz., that he is "a very stable genius", that his administration doesn't have a chaotic turnover of senior staff, that American foreign policy isn't undermining alliances and democratic institutions around the world. In fact, Trump's reaction to the British Ambassador's cables simply confirm Sir Kim's assessment of an inept, thin-skinned and erratic politician who can be easily manipulated by flattery - a view also shared, undoubtedly, by Vladimir Putin.
7
The incompetence of Trump as head of state is hardly a secret. This is a reality we are forced to suffer ... for at least a little while longer. But again, Trump’s incompetence is not a secret. So, with all due respect for Ambassador Darroch, one wonders why his mention of Trump’s incompetence in a confidential communication of all things at this time to his government, that was leaked, was even needed.
3
It is appropriate that Darroch has resigned. Not only does he lack diplomacy, he also lacks common sense in that he put his rants in writing.
3
@MIKEinNYC
So, by that same token, surely Mr. Trump should resign, too. Right now.
11
Every ambassador puts his assessments in writing.
However it appears that Sir Kim clearly had someone determined to wreck his career.
And before anyone one says it couldn’t happen to US diplomats, uh yes it could and did. Wikileaks anyone? Caused US Ambassador to Mexico in 2010 to resign. And think of all the leaks from this White House.
3
I wonder why his private conversations were leaked. Where is the Trump outrage over leakers. The Ambassador was clearly set up by elements in Britain. Or the Russians? For what purpose? Why isn’t anyone addressing this?
3
Trump is sweeping away years of entrenched entitlement. Let them squawk and back bite. While the rest of the world seems to be falling apart the United States of America is going from strength to strength. The British are such snobs and have always made sport of American gumption; snobbery usually being the last refuge of failed empires.
3
Your thoughts from the safety of Canada are unwelcome. We have to deal with this clown.
3
@Tony Francis Your on the Board of The Fraser Institute...right?
2
Its not exactly a news bulletin that most people have contempt for our great leader. That contempt starts in the offices of the White House and radiates Outward . It picks up steam at America's borders and increases in power until its a force that rivals the Sun's energy. Ya we get it, we don't have much of a President.
2
Putin could not ask for more. That is the bottom line.
3
I’d like to know who threw Darroch under the bus. He was speaking his mind in a confidential cable. His assessment accords with what anyone in Washington with a rational, functioning mind will tell you about this administration: it is chaotic, inept and barely functional. Good information for the government of Britain to know.
Probably some Boris Johnson sycophant on the other end of the pond leaked the cables.
With Trump and Johnson in charge of the “special relationship,” I think it should henceforth be subtitled “Dumb and Dumber” until we escape this nightmare.
8
Another professional diplomat falls by the wayside. I sincerely hope that the ‘scoop’ was worth it, to the leaker. What a shock; a foreign diplomat described Trump with clarity. By all means, please replace Darroch with another sycophant. We haven’t reached “critical mass” of supplicants, for Donald Trump....apparently.
5
'“It could have been any of us,” one ambassador, who is still serving and therefore spoke on the condition of anonymity, said on Wednesday.'
And there you have the definition of a coward.
1
@TWW
No. The ambassador is doing their job for their country. They have no need to be brave for “us”.
We are the cowards.
1
Labour MP Emily Thornberry: "It makes a laughingstock out of our government."
Losing control of confidential diplomatic cables is what makes "your" government "a laughingstock".
Notably, the former French ambassador, Gérard Araud, took precautions: "But fortunately I knew that nothing would remain secret, so I sent them in a most confidential manner."
The Times should find out what Araud means by "a most confidential manner".
2
Trump's supporters love the bizarro Trump spectacle and eat up the 'America First" nonsense. If anyone could help them understand how this spectacularly incompetent , mendacious and malicious man is undermining the security of the United States by trashing long-time alliances that have had our back for decades, they would think immediately withdraw their support. Unfortunately , that is unlikely to happen and by the time Trump leaves office, we will be left a lonely, unsafe island. He is a threat to our democracy and our security.
4
It’s truly sad when 40% of the American populace swallows whole Trump’s claims of unparalleled success, while the rest of the civilized world perceives, accurately, that a megalomaniacal incompetent holds the most powerful job on earth.
7
President Truman, who never attended college, had a great deal of trouble even with his own State Dept, "The Striped Pants Boys."
Generally, elites will have trouble with people like Truman and Trump whom they look down on.
The article mentioned that Israel doesn't have a problem with Trump. Let's examine their ambassador and compare him with the British Ambassador.
Ron Dermer *is an American who attended the same college as an undergraduate as Trump, Wharton.*. He was Ambassador since 2013 and sees the marked improvement of this administration compared to the Obama administration.
Dermer later attended Oxford. Unlike the British Ambassador, Dermer is not a career diplomat.
The British didn't exercise judgement when they chose this Ambassador. They might consider following the Israeli example and have as Ambassador someone who
1. Had been an American who attended college here and would be much more familiar with the American political system than someone who grew up in Britain.
2. Someone what was not a career diplomat, but someone who, like Trump ran a successful large business. Someone Trump could better relate to than a career diplomat and more importantly, with whom Trump could better relate.
A good NYT analysis would be to ask why the British didn't appointment someone more like Ron Dermer, a man who is clearly much better able to relate to Trump.
2
Maybe because they wanted a professional and hugely experienced diplomat with extensive international security experience who would report accurately to his government and behave with honour, not a stooge?
31
He spoke truth. You think GB should have sent a sycophant?
18
Truman made an effort to learn.
5
That Darroch was the best and finest representative that the UK could sent to Washington is scary. This man did not understand security or diplomacy. Instead he was the best in insulting the US President for all to see using choice of words that even some 100 years ago would have insulted the smallest British Colony somewhere in Asia or Africa. Theresa May's replacement will have his hands full cleaning up this mess and the sooner the better.
3
@rudolf
He didn’t do it ‘for all to see’. He gave his honest opinion privately, and it was leaked. Are you saying that diplomats should lie? (Parenthetically?Trump is a dangerous narcissist, solipsistic and self regarding, and anyone who says otherwise adds to the danger )
31
@rudolf He was being honest with his government in a private, secret communication. Every diplomat does that. The problem is that it was leaked to the press.
23
Not as full as Trump’s replacement will have it, struggling to repair the massive damage and find all the security holes he poked in the system. His supporters will be shocked when we learn how he handed American secrets to any dictator who offered him a hotel. “Trump Moscow! Great! You want the nuclear codes? Sure!”
12
Poor ambassadors. They don’t have Obama to swoon over any more. Could it be they have become spoiled by always getting their way? Trump may be offensive but he is not afraid to speak up when US interests are at stake. If he hurts a few feelings so be it. We have been taken advantage of by our friends long enough. They need to prove to us that they want our friendship or we need new friends.
10
@Confused Yeah, confused indeed. In true diplomacy, Ambassadors do not get "their way", especially those from friendly nations. The goal of diplomacy is to come to an agreement on goals and to move forward with a coordinated plan that benefits all parties. It's not one-upsmanship or a zero-sum game, a nuance which both you and Trump don't seem to understand.
77
Why do they have to prove it to the US and not the other way round? Have fun with your new friends Kim and Vlad...we will see how that works out for you in the long run. I'm sure they have only your best interest at heart and no underlying agenda!
27
@Confused Speaking as a citizen of one of America's friends - Canada in my case - I remind you that it was your friends who rallied round after 9/11 and, in Canada's case, invoked the mutual defence Article of the NATO Treaty for the first and only time in history in support of our neighbors to the south. Maybe if Trump didn't attack and punish his allies, pander to America's enemies and abuse America's friendships to score cheap domestic political points he would have some more people prepared to defend him.
44
This just smells of something Nigel Farange would conceive. He was tight with former AG Sessions and Stephen Miller. It certainly goes to pushing a close partner to the US to a more servile and subservient relationship. Trump wants to “win”, which doesn’t mean being in a higher position, but making the “loser” always knows it.
9
Sir Kim thought our WH was dysfunctional, watching their Brexit one could certainly say the same about over there. I suppose Mr. Darroch would know what dysfunction would look like then.
It is a real shame that the ambassador chose to resign over doing his job for his country and giving his opinion, an opinion that differs little from so many Americans. We are embarrassed by the ADHD poster-child that is our president.
8
The British Ambassador to the US, has been caught up in a Brexit fight in the UK. Boris Johnson, the Trump Lite likely new UK PM, has shown he will be the British PM, who will rule Britain in the best interests of Trump.
Competence, decency and fairness, are not words one uses to describe Trump or Johnson. It seems the ongoing political turmoil in the US and UK, will only get worse.
With Johnson as the British PM, there will be at least one other nation supporting Trump’s war with Iran, apart from Israel and Saudi Arabia.
4
USA since January 20th 2017 has been under the Trump dictatorship. This dictatorship is being felt worldwide.
So far the democrats have shown to be completely useless in stopping this and to me seem complacent or dumbfounded as what to do next except wait till the next election.
I like Elizabeth Warren for POTUS and hope people put down their cellphone for a few minutes next November and vote.
11
A large swath of the American voters agree with Mr. Darroch's assessment. Maybe it is the President we need to get rid of.
11
Sadly, honest competence in the Trumpian world of the great faker has compelled the truth-speaking ambassador to resign as Trump's childish tantrums further demean the office of the US President, proving Sir Kim Darroch's assessment perfectly correct.
7
We assume the leak came from the British, but perhaps it was Russia. They surely want Johnson as PM, so who's to say they didn't intercept Darroch's emails? May as PM, even if it is just for a couple of weeks, shouldn't have accepted Darroch's resignation. As Labor said, Churchill would never have been bullied by Trump. The only party who wins from this? Putin. Johnson and Trump will allow him to walk through Ukraine and maybe even the Baltic States. NATO will collapse. It wouldn't surprise me to see Germany reassert herself to fill the power vacuum created by the feckless Trump and Johnson. Germany enlists Poland on the West and Japan and China in the East to contain Russia? It is not farfetched as our nation weakens.
6
Forget foreign ambassador's remarks about Trump, we heard much worse from his own Chief of Staff and Secretary of State.
9
Trump can't handle the truth and constructive criticism. And any nation run by a man who can't handle the truth will never be "great".
10
"It would have been stranger, his diplomatic colleagues said, if Mr. Darroch had been writing cables describing the Trump White House as a smooth-running machine."
Mr. Darroch would have been wiser to send a message that said:
"I have it on unimpeachable authority that the current administration is highly competent, is lead by a person of great wisdom and perspicacity, and runs like a well-oiled machine at all times. I also have it from the same unimpeachable authority that the Moon is composed of green cheese and that the tooth fairy is going to celebrate her 179th birthday at the invitation of the White House next Tuesday at 3:42 PM."
He could also have reported that :
"From time to time, there were occasional appearances by Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the president’s elder daughter and son-in-law, who also serve as the president’s senior advisers and live with their children a few blocks from the embassy, at hosted receptions in the British Embassy’s grand ballroom and at weekend cocktail parties under tents on the lawn overlooking Embassy Row. They commented that they chose to appear at such functions because they like the canapes and needed a quick snack."
But instead, he had to go and say such snarky things as calling the wanna-be dictator "inept," and "incompetent," calling his administration “uniquely dysfunctional,” and reporting that the wanna-be dictator might end his career in "disgrace."
Yet another proof that "no good deed goes unpunished."
6
This diplomat is being criticized by Trumpists everywhere for disrespecting the office of of the President.
That’s rich.
Of all the human beings living on this planet the one person who has shown, time and again, that he disrespects the office of the President more than any other? Donald J. Trump.
14
My gut tells me that the leaker may be Boris Johnson. After all he was Foreign Secretary during the time that this email may have been written. No doubt Mr Darroch found it impossible to work with both men who seem to be governing totally of the rails.
6
Consider this, driving a wedge between the Echelon bookends (US and UK) clearly benefits Russia and its close friends.
5
He was not "caught in public," David Sanger. His private conversation was stolen and leaked. A critical distinction.
Do we know who leaked it and why? Was Russia or another foreign (or domestic) actor with mal-intent behind it? That's the bigger question and story. Seems like this leak served pro-Brexit, anti-Atlantic Alliance interests perfectly.
10
Darroch was just "telling it like it is" instead of being "politically correct." He was "getting tough" with Trump.
4
I read articles such as this one and all I can think is: Please Democratic party, don't blow this opportunity we have in 2020 to unseat the poor excuse for a President that we currently have. Four more years of this is going to damage this country beyond repair.
4
The more people who tell the truth and the fewer who normalize the Aberration Administration, the better.
8
I stand with the brits on this one.
7
I fully expect Trump to appoint his horse to the Senate.
6
“caught in public saying something that is widely believed” — Trump is _for_ political correctness now?
1
Not to be sentimental, the occasion needs to be filed under the defiling disgrace this President is to the republic.
2
Putin and Xi must be thrilled with the chaos.
3
Is this any way to run a civilized country?
2
Why exactly would their opinion be any different from other intelligent people's? Unless you're a part of the cult and are using your intelligence to argue on his behalf or you're one of those folks who really don't have a lot going on behind their eyes you are one of the millions that thinks he's a buffoon. His lack of self awareness here is pretty shocking.
5
...listening to a news network when the news broke...
one talking head asks the other, “What do you think of the ambassador describing the president as inept, insecure and incompetent?” ...
I shouted “Accurate!”
5
Any diplomat representing a US ally (except Israel and a couple of Arab states) surely reports back that Trump is of limited intelligence, dishonest, incompetent. petulant, unpredictable, and that he is a terrible leader who runs a chaotic administration. On top of it all he is a boor with no social skills, likes to insult his hosts before, during and after visits and is the epitome of the legendary Ugly American. He is an embarrassment to a once great democracy and a danger to the world.
5
Word of the day: “lickspittle.” It fits Kellyann Conway and VP Mike Pence so well....
8
As a person who has to travel a lot for work I can reasonably say that we are the only developed nation on the planet who is stupid enough to think that Donald Trump is acceptable. In any other nation people would be out in the streets in force by now. Fact.
7
So much about what was leaked, so little about the leakers. Can the NYT delve into this?
4
It would not surprise in the least if Boris Johnson, or those near him, leaked the Darroch's comments.
4
the only wacky, very stupid person in all of this is trump.
15
Whether this communique was leaked intentionally or not, the fact remains that it's common knowledge in Diplomatic circles and around the world what kind of person and president Donald Trump is.
And that won't change even with the resignation of Mr. Darroch.
22
I don't understand why the Europeans don't just publicly read Trump the riot act on his hideous behavior. I know they're just trying to hold on until 2020, but, wouldn't it be nice if these governments just told the United States off. We are no longer allies of this monster. We are allies of the American people!
8
What is wrong with this picture? On the one hand, Sir Kim Darroch, a professional diplomat, is forced to step down for stating the truth and what any objective observer would say about the current U.S. administration --- it is inept and dysfunctional. On the other hand, a man who cannot move his lips without lying and has the temperament of toddler continues to have his job and wreak havoc on the world. Yet another embarrassment in an ever-expanding list.
21
Boris, be careful for what you wish for. Paving the way for your own people ,before you are elected, is not always a wise choice.
4
Most people hearing intelligent criticism of themselves take stock, look in the mirror and adjust their words and actions.
Trump cannot. Everything Sir Kim said is provably correct. He was too polite though.
11
When Trump got elected, he and his supporters went after people who didn't like him by having them fired or put in jail on trumped up charges (as was done to folks at his inaugural).
This is just more of the same. Get over it Trump. People know you well enough to say these things. The day will come when there will be no punishment for telling the unflattering truth about you. Until then, just keep firing away I guess.
6
lost his job for revealing highly classified state secrets:
- trump is inept and incompetent
- the administration is dysfunctional
if he mentioned another state secret - global warming - he would have won the trifecta.
8
Did I miss something in this article.? Can someone tell me how & by whom the confidential comments were leaked? I would think that the security breach would be more important than Failure Trump’s tantrum.
4
Don’t mess with with boss Trump! If you do, he will come at you like a steamroller on a hot summers day flattening everything in its path...totally!
2
Sheesh. *Of course* that was his assessment. Anyone who is not an ideologue and not brainwashed by Fox "News" would have the same assessment because it's an accurate assessment of this incompetent administration.
10
I am an American citizen, Vietnam vet, and I disdain Trump’s behavior.
17
This helps kill the myth of the 'Special Relationship. Time to take back control.
2
Ironic, is it not? The man who proudly proclaims that he ‘won’t be politically correct,’ and whose outrageous words and conduct his ‘base’ likes to call ‘telling it like it is,’ cannot stomach the slightest candid criticism from others.
That’s not ‘telling it like it is’ — it’s telling it like you wanna hear it. It’s called pandering; it’s called cowardice; and it’s called hypocrisy.
14
Trump only wants sycophants around him as he is so insecure and aware how unqualified he is to be in such a high office. Trump like Kim, Putin and MSB as he wants to rule as a dictator and with the blessing of the GOP and Barr that is just fine . Our next president will have to patch up relations with our long term allies and tell Kim, Putin and MSB their party is over.
5
Like any competent diplomatic corps, the UK sent home honest and factual assessments. That's what they're paid for. In that light, the UK ambassador has described Trump and his administration as inept, clumsy, dysfunctional, erratic, abnormal, radiating insecurity. My only complaint? Darroch was too kind by a country mile. Try treasonous, a textbook demagogue, etc. Trump and the Trumpies don't want an ambassador. They want a bootlicker. And I'm afraid that's just what the UK is getting in Mr. Johnson.
8
Quite Ironic that Trump gets furious when some of his people leak info about him to Press. He has even opened inquiries to find these leakers and threatens to punish them like criminals. Of course he discredits what is leaked in such cases. And Yet, he gets mad and acts like a looney when the leaks are critical of him. He even holds the person whose comments were leaked responsible. Such a slob!
2
It's Conservative party members who pick the next PM, not Parliament, odd as that may sound.
3
It’s McConnell who picks Federal judges, not Congress, as looney as that may sound.
4
The only way to break into the White House's inner circle is to be born a Trump or Mary a Trump.
4
Just tell Donald that he's great, put out the red carpet for him and his merry band of grifters and he'll say you are "terrific". tell the truth about him and his spawn and he reacts like a teenager, calling out names and lying about the person exposing him.
5
"Yes, yes, everyone does" says Gerard Araud.
Precisely! It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Trump is basically incompetent and extremely ignorant. Foreign governments, friend or foe, know what they are dealing with in Trump. After all, this is a man who can't keep his mouth shut, even when he knows squat about a subject, instead broadcasting his pathetic inanity to the entire world. To wit, his extemporaneous comments about George Washington controlling the skies and taking airports from the Brits. Jiminy, even the dimmest Trump supporter realizes how deeply ignorant those statements were. Why they continue to believe in a man of such deep ignorance, not to mention to trust him with the reins of government, remains unexplained.
8
"Lickspittle." Trust the Brits to come up with the perfect term for Trump supporters.
The terms we use are so much less genteel.
4
From the times of the Romans, “emissaries” have been an odd and typically self-serving lot. There’s a reason they were sent abroad by their government. Recall Winston Churchill sending Lord Halifax, the appeaser, to Washington during WW II.
2
There is no evidence I’ve seen that Sir Kim was either odd or self-serving.
As for Lord Halifax while he was indeed an appeaser prior to the war, I’m not aware that he didn’t transmit an accurate account of the American situation, nor communicate accurately information as to Churchill’s requirements . Of course there was an ambassador whose views contradicted his leader’s, Joseph Kennedy.
Understand for most countries Ambassadorships are given not to big contributors nor buddies, but to career diplomats!
Once again, Trump is showing himself to be a first-rate buffoon. He is completely incompetent and out of his league. To the Republican Party: The emperor has no clothes!
9
Ambassador privately calls Trump "inept". Trump promptly proves it true by publicly calling the diplomat "stupid" and "wacky".
7
Do U.S. Ambassadors openly disrespect the counstry in which they are serving in other countries?
2
Their job is to give honest assessments of the situations in those countries, and then expect to be able to do so confidentially. Whether or not the governments of those countries deserve the respect is outside the diplomats’ scope of responsibility.
8
@Caroline M. Yes. They have.
3
No, not openly--and neither did Darroch.
3
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Republican Party of the United States . . .
3
Mr. McDerroch is a hero for giving voice to the thinking people of this age.
The American people did not elect Donald Trump.
He lost the popular vote decisively to Secretary Clinton. As former President Jimmy Carter said, Trump is an illegitimate president put in office by Putin.
We are living in an age of blatant corruption, obstruction to democracy, and kleptocratic theft of America’s and Russia’s asset by their leader thrives.
This is all playing out in the open, even when behind closed doors. Why are there secret meetings between Trump, Putin and Kim Jong-un, as Trump invites North Korea into the nuclear nations and withdraws economic sanctions?
North Korea has long been a proxy actor for Russia, so the next wave of election attacks will likely involve them as well.
Trump must be excluded from running for President as any felon would. He is accused of raping 22 women, money laundering, obstruction of justice, fraud, tax evasion and is a traitor to America.
Mr. McDerroch said what everyone around the world is thinking. In the post nuclear age, Trump and Putin must be stopped.
7
I had the pleasure of meeting Sir Kim Darroch at a couple of British Embassy events for new Marshall Scholars who were about to begin their studies at British universities. I was impressed by his intelligence, his warmth, and his obviously sincere commitment to maintaining the special relationship. This distinguished diplomat deserves Americans' gratitude for his many efforts to strengthen the cultural, economic, and strategic ties between the UK and the US.
9
The naked truth, from the BBC website:
"America is respected again". It's a common refrain from the president in speeches, tweets and off-the-cuff remarks. Mr Trump insisted during his 2016 campaign that then President Barack Obama had degraded American standing in the world, and pretty much since his inauguration he has boasted that he has restored the nation's tarnished reputation.
The president frequently likes to recount how other world leaders have (privately) praised him for the job he's doing and expressed envy of American strength and prosperity.
Call it his "Make America Great Again" promise, projected on the world stage.
The trouble for the president is that Sir Kim's blunt assessment of White House dysfunction, chaos and incompetence dramatically undercut this rosy picture. Here was the representative of a close ally in confidential memos to British leaders essentially saying the emperor has no clothes."
34
Proving, once again, no good deed goes unpunished.
13
I think that you are very lucky Mr. Darroch! Millions of Americans would like to give Mr. Trump their opinions about his policies and personal conduct but we can't do it! He dodges public events and press conferences because he is afraid to face an audience unless they all voted for him. And you can bet that a critical letter never makes it any where near his desk. I would love to write to him and tell him that I think he is a liar, among other things. At least your thoughts got read and responded to!
23
How can anyone be a diplomat when dealing with someone who does not believe in diplomacy (it’s for weak people), and instead is as ill-mannered, unilateral and uninformed as Trump ? Someone whose word you can never believe because he either changes his mind at any moment (or forgets without a teleprompter), or reneges on any former agreement, formal or not ?
10
I had been wondering what other countries thought of trump. Mr. Darrochs evaluation of the trump White House is accurate. In some ways it is reassuring that foreign ambassadors see the truth about the trump administration. It is regrettable that speaking truth cost Mr. Darrochs cost him his post. Best wishes Mr. Darrochs.
13
Don't worry Mr. Darrock, much of the free world feels exactly as you do when it involves this joke of an administration. The only difference is that you were ratted out (probably) by a Boris Johnson supporter who happens to be Trump's new BFF. You shouldn't resign for speaking the truth. Tell your critics to go kick rocks. However, being a man of integrity, intelligence, and experienced diplomatic skills, I understand your decision for the honorable exit.
You aren't the only citizens who feel like you live in a country who's the "laughing stock of the world." With the exception of Israel and Saudi Arabia, who love the U.S., our standing in the world is tainted.
11
You can't hide ineptitude for log.
If anything, I would hope this would prompt more releases and public calling out, as we all know many many people worldwide feel the same.
Sunlight is a good disinfectant.
14
"It could have been any of us." No doubt, if their missions had also had insufficient mole control.
3
This whole British situation just enforces the persistent question:
Is Trump good for the US?
2
Answer: No.
2
The UK Ambassador did the responsible thing, as he stated, in resigning. His professional behavior starkly counterpoints 45*'s which is overblown and infantile--the usual.
Even though Ambassador Darroch was spot on in his assessment (even pulled some punches there) of 45* and his WH Administration, he was clearly going to be shut out even further than he'd already been. As a professional, he is looking out for the best interests of all, which is noticeably absent in our dealings with our allies.
9
To me, the saddest part is that the Turks, Saudis, Israelis, Russians and other countries ruled by dictators know this about Trump too and they are using every flaw and weakness described by Kim Darroch to manipulate him and his administration to further their agendas which are largely not supported by the American people or Congress. Trump is like Falstaff, the fool who doesn’t know it.
14
The toxic person that is Trump claims another victim. If only the ambassadors could vote!
8
The opinion of a diplomat to one our eldest and closest allies should be taken as an indication of the “respect” this administration inspires abroad. Past presidents may have been more or less liked or disliked, but Mr Trump is apparently seen as an absolute buffoon. Oh America, how low have you fallen.
15
Your comment gives me hope, that Missouri is not solid Red!
1
Christopher Buckley, satirical author, and son of William F. Buckley has said that he has stopped writing satirical books about politics because, with what's happening now, you can't make this stuff up!
7
Reminds me of a joke from the 1960's:
A man in Paris was arrested for running down the street screaming "De Gegaulle is ruining France". When an American asked what was the charge? he was told "giving away State secrets"
Now its America and I'm not laughing
PS. De Gegaulle was president of France
2
And the Russian ambassador wrote to his government: " Thank you god (Putin) for electing this marionette. His is following our directions precisely. The western alliance is on a brink of a complete break up".
6
Boris Johnson is Trump's point man in the UK and not merely through accident, but through multiple connections. Both are narcissists and liars who are unabashed about their deceits, whether it is to partners, wives, colleagues indeed whole nations. Their bare faced manner of their lying is therefore a test for everyone else, particularly in their own political parties. Looking from the outside it seems to me that the Republicans - apparently 'Trumpers' to a man or woman - are not just terminally corrupt and bought out but totally shameless.
In the UK the Tory party has not reached this state - yet. But this is only because the moderates, people like John Major or Michael Heseltine (past leader and deputy leader) are ready to denounce Johnson for the lying fraud that he is. But the vast bulk of the party, almost totally white, elderly and far right, are totally behind him.
Unfortunately in Britain we have an inept Labour party leader. In the US you have yet to make to choice. Decide wisely!!
10
We will see if the rest fall in line behind Johnson, if he is made Prime Minister. That is how it has gone, almost completely, with the Republicans. There was resistance prior to his installation in the presidency, but McConnell has fairly effectively quelled almost all dissent at this point.
5
The elephant in the room is, who leaked the ambassador's private communications with London? Russia? Who? Obviously, Darroch's career will survive pointing out that our emperor is wearing no clothes. But what of the 'special relationship'... Trump should emigrate to North Korea, where he would fit right in!
4
“Just imagine Churchill allowing this humiliating, servile, sycophantic indulgence of the American president’s ego to go unchallenged.”
Spot on.
8
The best that can be said of Mr. Trump is that one day he will be dead and gone. Can’t happen soon enough for me.
8
Really? I’m shocked! Most Diplomats agree? Is this piece really worth it’s ink on the paper? Ask any sane person here and abroad and he or she will agree.
3
More diplomatic leaks please!
2
The bigger story that the NYtimes should be investigating is the leak of the cables by a rag newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch. That is if they are not themselves terrified to go after him.
Murdoch and his Brexit crowd are only happy to undermine any politician that doesn’t support Brexit and Trump.
There has been a soft coup underway of both the US and British governments aided by Murdoch’s media empire and backed by oligarchs in Russian and China, all while American politicians and voters are asleep behind the wheel driving our country off a cliff.
5
France is America's oldest ally, not the UK.
2
Sir Darroch, I salute you, for reporting to your government the truth about this lout, presently occupying the White House, although he lost the popular vote.
9
Europe needs to deal with its own problems and stop insulting the USA.
1
Europe did not insult the USA, an ambassador from the UK reported back to his government accurately on the current president and his administration. Unfortunately his confidential comments were leaked for political gain. Few other ambassadors would report the facts back to their governments any differently, that is their job, to speak the truth
3
I want somebody - anybody - to stand up to him. Why why why is everyone so very afraid of his bullying?
I despise Trump. He is destroying America. And nobody is stopping him.
6
@sophia
Nancy? Chuck? Anyone in dem "leadership"?
2
Personally i have never been conviced of this special relationship If Boris and his merry band of Brexiteers think good old uncle Sam is going to bail us out they obviously don't teach history at Oxbridge these days .After all he has bankrupted us on a couple of occassions .As for Trump he won't blink .
3
All the other ambassadors should rush to his defense and state their right to speak their minds!! Never cave in to a bully. France, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, do you think the emperor has new clothes? If you don’t, if you think he’s naked — say so loud and clear.
6
Admittedly, foreign diplomats have it so tough. The pleasant manse in Georetown can hardly compensate one for the parade of bores one must put up with at those endless cocktail parties paid for by the British people. Sir Kim, I'm afraid, forgot lesson number one from the Diplomat's Primer: Be Dimplmatic.
1
Well then let’s give al of these diplomats a one way ticket home where they can vent their personal likes and dislikes.
I grew up thinking and believing that diplomatic skill was best demonstrated by patience, understanding, middle of the road politics and not personal views in order to maintain political presence. In this case that belief was abandoned in favor of pure political agendas.
Besides, the telling tale is to wait to hear from the royals to get stake in their temperatures on the issue. After all it’s near impossible for any Brit to visit the john without getting their approval.
2
The Ambassador didn’t take out a newspaper ad “outing” our national embarrassment. He did his duty by informing his government of the pitiful state our government. Do you think, with the exception of Israel and SA, that secret communication between other governments don’t relay what a buffoon trump is?
2
I am confident that high government official are just like the rest of us and often express pettiness, hostility, or contempt in complaints about others. And like rest of us, they are usually careful not to do so except in confidence to only one or a few people at a time (except Donald who likes to do it publicly to the world).
Therefore, I am glad that the commonness of the British ambassador was revealed. And I am glad that Trump reveals his commonness publicly. I think it is good that the public sees high government officials really are just common people because the public generally has too high an opinion of and places too much trust in high government officials. They don't deserve the public's trust to the extent that it is given them.
The only lament I have in this case is that the British ambassador resigned. If he was worthy of the confidence of the British people, then he would have had the stamina to remain in his position.
@Errol
You write that “the public generally has too high an opinion of and places too much trust in high government officials.”
The U.S.A. is a republican democracy. Each of the 435 members of the house represents about 750,000 citizens. It is crucial that We the People very carefully choose representatives who are exceptionally knowledgable, moral, motivated and experienced.
Elected officials who hold high governmental positions should not “reveal their commoness.”
They should reveal the best and the brightest our nation has to offer.
Errol. do you view the electoral process as a meaningless game?
Do you understand the level of disaster and calamity that the election of Nitwit J. Trump has brought us to?
2
The frequency with which accomplished people, regardless of their political preferences, refer to Mr. Trump as less than able and informed has been too numerous to discount as some kind of petty resentful attitude among a few. The man is not able to learn how to do his job as President, it's that simple.
However, as President, he must be given respect for the sake of ongoing relations with the U.S. The digital communications network is vulnerable to spying, so any expressions of opinions anyone makes can become public, so professionals should just not do it.
1
The honorable ambassador’s colleagues back home does not need him to tell them that Trump is dysfunctional,etc. It is too obvious.
7
I predict that our next President will be very polite and responsive to our cherised overseas relationships that we've spent decades building and maintaining. Just because one incompetent individual (trump*) can't get past his extreme limitations and can't admit to being wrong (at least 95% of the time) shouldn't foreshadow ongoing troubled relationships with our valued world neighbors.
This current situation we are in is an annomaly and positive changes are coming in 2020 and beyond!
3
It started with bulling Russian Ambassador just because he had protocol meeting with US officials. Hysteria was so high that he actually was accused in recruiting agents. from that perspective British ambassador was treated quite gently. His disdain for Trump could be explained his frustration with state Department who doesn't want to act as an subsidiary of the British foreign office.
1
Leaders of allied countries all over the world will have to decide whether to place their Troops in harm's way based on the decisions of our president. Trump's incompetence and mental deficiencies are not a secret. They are constantly on full display for the world to see. Just because our media is squeamish about discussing the issue, most other countries do not have a FOX News and the luxury of looking the other way. Our allies have to reckon with the thought of possibly following Trump into an obviously needless war with Iran (and thereby tearing their own societies apart), or exiting NATO.
Hopefully, the next P.M. of the U.K. will be seriously constrained by the leak of this assessment of Trump and will not be able to blindly support the administration when it is looking to build a coalition for an attack against Iran.
6
The swamp is not confined to the United States. He was destined to be shown the door by his own government by the end of the year.
2
His posting was due to conclude at the end of 2019, in place since his appointment. His government would not have shown him any door, just another posting for a very well respected diplomat
1
Sir Kim obviously refused to indulge in the ever so British art of the understatement. He called a spade a spade. Was he fed up with the lack of respect Trump and his minions were showing the United Kingdom, "the best ally of the U.S.A." ? Could very well be.
The age of communication has transformed ambassadors in glorified travel agents, extremely well treated travel agents. The British government, or for that matter any foreign government, did not need their ambassador's reports to know that the Trump administration is a freak show.
2
It was malicious to leak the contents of the British ambassador's private assessment of the current US regime. Such assessments are the normal part of an ambassador's job and the normal type of activity that ambassadors all over the world are duty-bound to engage in. As it turns out, leaking this private correspondence not only severely damaged relations between the US and Britain, but it had all sorts of negative consequences for British internal politics. The damage is so great, that I seriously suspect that the leak was instigated by a hostile foreign power. Of course only a narcissist would risk creating such enormous damage to assuage his own ego, but that is what our President is, and whoever it was that hacked into the private cables and leaked them, doubtlessly knew what Trump's reaction would be and the damage it was sure to create. I can't help thinking the culprit was someone in the pay of Trump's dear friend, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
It is only a matter of time until the damage being done to our country and to the world by this President reach an extent sufficient to bring the horrors of chaos and war to our shores. The stability of the western world that we have been enjoying for the past two generations is being shaken repeatedly. Can we remain standing until January 2021?
8
Putin set up Brexit. Putin set up Trump as president. He did this by appealing to the fearful. And now the western democracies are collapsing.
I give money to anti-Trump political candidates, write my Republican congresspersons, have campaigned for Democratic candidates, vent on sites like this, avoid companies that donate to the GOP, etc.
Still, I feel rather hopeless and helpless. The forces of the fearful and lack of a popular vote may well prevail. What a terrible time this is for the world.
12
It is beyond belief how unceasingly and unerringly Donald Trump works against the interests and short- and long-term security of the United States.
10
So sad. As stated in the article and elsewhere, Mr. Darroch has essentially been fired because of the leak, not because of what he said. Providing a frank and accurate assessment of this inept administration to his government is his job, not to coddle trumps massive ego. Too bad his expertise will leave with him.
8
“But fortunately I knew that nothing would remain secret, so I sent them in a most confidential manner," said the French ambassador. My first thought was too bad Sir Kim didn't do the same. However, the circus going on in Washington is so obviously out of control to everyone that no comment is necessary.
The emperor has no clothes.
6
Anybody who has been trained and experienced in international diplomacy would be forced to admit the truth about our current administration and its embarrassingly clumsy attempts to act like they know what they are doing. What everybody sees is obvious: Dysfunctional, deceitful, dishonest, disrespectful and untrustworthy. It will be astonishing if any positive foreign policy outcome comes from the Trump administration.
6
I'm surprised the Queen and current Prime Minister didn't just say, "I've met Mr. Trump several times and I can attest that Mr. Darroch's view was in no way without foundation in fact."
5
The Ambassador was already in trouble for comments he made in 2016. Trump attempted to have him removed then. So there was already bad blood between them and probably not a positive relationship for either country. However, once his comments and cables were revealed -- then of course he had to go -- he was not only no longer of value to GB or the US, he had become a serious liability and an aggravation. It is also fair to say that his comments were pompous and ugly and it was his responsibility as a diplomat to make sure such comments if ever made were totally confidentially.
Good Riddance.
2
It is no secret nor surprise that the Washington diplomatic corps views Trump through the same lens and with the same conclusions as Ambassador Darroch. The French ambassador, Gérard Araud, found him to be a “whimsical, unpredictable, uninformed” leader. Sir Darroch has served, and continues to serve, the UK with honour and distinction. The fact that Boris Johnson refused, publicly to acknowledge such a fact cowardly undermines the exemplary work of the UK diplomatic corps and sets a dangerous tone. Sir Darroch understood this instantly, and chose to extricate himself from an untenable situation, created by Johnson as a result of Trump's narcissistic meltdown. Grotesque buffoonery for all to see and undoubtedly to be emulated by Johnson, who in all likelihood will mimic the preening shell of humanity and blustering balloon-figure currently squatting in the WH.
9
Interesting how everyone who ever comes into contact with Trump ... and makes the mistake of speaking the truth ... gets fired, publicly humiliated, dragged through the mud by a pack of ravening sycophants, gets into legal jeopardy, goes to jail, or a combination of many, if not all, of those.
No wonder no one in his "inner circle" tells him anything other than what he wants to hear.
6
It's all happening right in front of us and the "little person" feels helpless as Trump gets away with anything and everyone in supposed "power" comes off as powerless. Maybe diplomatic communications should be carried secretly by carrier pigeons as in the ancient days.
3
Disdain for Trump runs among ambassadors? And among the population of the US, Europe, Canada, South America and Asia. I really wish Ambassador Darroch had not resigned. He bowed to a bully and we were all behind Mr. Darroch - I mean the whole world.
5
It's a shame that Mr. Darroch’s private communiques were hacked. He was doing his job and his assessment of Trump's WH is likely to be remembered historically as being highly accurate.
It's also a shame that Mr. Darroch was forced to resign. Like Blair before him, Johnson is exihibiting himself to the world as an another example of a British lapdog. Chamberlain would be proud.
Trump has an infinite capacity for self-aggrandizement but zero capacity for self-reflection. History is not going to be kind to those who could not find the courage and/or intellectual honesty to stand up to this fool (e.g. Lindsey Graham, Boris Johnson, etc., etc.).
5
This makes me very sad. Most days I feel that we will never again be seen as a beacon in the eyes of the world regardless of our blemishes and scars. I was with my therapist earlier today and of course, we talked about the Getter Rat, and my obsession with him and the chaos and corruption and the fact that my wife's BFF voted for him and I want to throw that in her face because she defends her right to vote however she wants to vote, which is true, but she is only doing so to put some more money in her pocket that surrounds him and it makes my head explode and I know that I should just stop watching and reading and onsuming the news but I can't. It is an addiciton.
3
Trump is not only a domestic terrorist, but must be considered a international terrorist also, in my opinion. He is destroying valuable trust with our allies and ignoring the threat that climate change has to living beings worldwide. Vote blue everyone in 2020.
3
Embarrassing and sickening treatment of a foreign diplomat-- the only practical way to stop this madness is to VOTE in 2020.
2
Sir Kim Darroch is everything Donald Trump isn't and never will be: A credit to his profession and a credit to his country. In the final analysis, THAT is what frosted Trump's cookies causing the schoolyard bully twitter-tantrum. Darroch, with laser-sharp accuracy, deftly described his untenable White House environment while serving Britain's diplomatic interests to the best of his ability in a passive-aggressive, hostile workplace. He will be sorely missed. The question now shifts to his replacement. In light of the situation, who would actually want Darroch's post???
4
Mr Darroch was doing his job. Trump’s response was mean but childish petulance.
3
It seems there is no limit to how much the Brexiters are willing to abase themselves, their country, and the royal family before Trump. All the bootlicking, including hosting the recent state visit of the entire vulgar grifter family, is for naught so far: instead of mollifying him, it invites more humiliation. Trump will continue to revel in humiliating the UK and the Brexiters will continue to enable him, just like the GOP enables his debasement of this country.
2
Trump can dish it out, but he can’t take it.
4
They all feel the same way because they're all interested in maintaining the old system that allowed them all to piggyback on the US. Good riddance and the fewer ambassadors we have in DC trying to weasel things out of us the better.
2
Intelligent Americans will also look forward to repairing our partnerships with our longstanding allies once this bum is voted out of office. God bless America, our traditional allies such as Great Britain, France, and others. Please bear with us during this dark chapter in our history.
3
Let's face it, it could have been anyone here as well, except his diehard fans and those around him making out like bandits.
3
A distinguished diplomat's communications are leaked and published in a tabloid with a predicted reaction from the White House. The leak is obviously selective and focused and accomplishes a few things, intended or not. It get's rid of a knowledgeable professional who stands in the way of a Brexiting U.K. being able to cosy up to the current administration in Washington. It tested Boris Johnson's loyalty to the Donald Trump during a debate in the likely event he becomes the U.K.'s next Prime Minister. It allowed the U.S. administration to humiliate the remnants of the "establishment" in the current U.K. government just before it transitions to Johnson. The Brexiters and Trump administration want to reshape the relationship politically and economically and this is just another small obstacle overcome in the broader raid on power and wealth by a radical fringe in both countries. The opposition on both sides of the Atlantic don't seem up to the job to stop it either. They are both still too in shock of it all, demoralized, or distracted by other issues to be a credible opponents to what is happening. Meanwhile the 21st century chugs along and the world isn't waiting.
539
@American
There is speculation in the UK that Theresa May may thwart Boris Johnson and his cohorts by appointing a new ambassador to the US before she leaves office.
Some are clutching their pearls at this perceived break in "protocol" but let's face it, this is no time for the protocol of old - as Trump has repeatedly demonstrated.
Not holding my breath but oh to see Boris Johnson and his ill ilk outfoxed!
61
Brilliant analysis!
2
And Putin looks on from Mother Russia and smugly nods approvingly. Mission Accomplished.
6
Guarantee the British ambassador's assessment was far more polite than most other nations ambassadors. After all, it's the British! I think as a sign of solidarity, all other ambassadors should release their general assessments as a compilation, without identifying which country said what. Should be a good laugh, seeing that we're the laughing stock of the world.
8
The last thing the UK needs at this point is a bad relationship with the US. The country is about to lose trading with Europe, so it desperately needs economic ties with the US (just remember the British royalty and dignitaries’ recent spectacle of them covering up their noses to appear to enjoy the Trump gang.) So it is not that the ambassador was incorrect in his assessment what has precipitated his dismissal: it the sheer need to her along with the Trump administration in exchange of food.
1
I have no doubt Mr. Darrock was accurate in his conclusions. Or that other diplomats have conveyed the same to their home administrations. But once revealed he can no longer effectively do his job, and he knows it.
17
The leaking of the cable is the problem. If you have something critical to say, say it over a secure telephone line or at the water cooler. Diplomats are supposed to be discreet.
10
Stating the obvious about the Trump administration is going to cause embarrassment, and nobody likes being embarrassed. Trump won't like the next ambassador either.
37
The irony and the pleasure that it gives is that the opinions of the British Ambassador is widely shared by most Americans and just about all other Diplomats except those of Israel, UAE, and Saudi. Is there even an argument?
75
We are going to find out whether conservatives are right and neither diplomacy nor international allies nor competence nor data nor planning nor civility matter.
It is an interesting experiment. However, I wish I wasn't one of the world's 7.4 billion guinea pigs.
50
It's a sad day when a man who did his job by providing his bosses an accurate assessment of Trump is forced to resign his position. It's equally sad that would be Trump toadie Boris Johnson is more concerned with pleasing Trump, than with who leaked the cables.
57
@liceu93 - It's the basic rule of all governments - no good deed goes unpunished
1
Stephen Greenblatt described King Richard III, in his book, "Tyrant – Shakespeare on Politics." This is a PERFECT description of Trump, the moral degenerate narcissistic sociopath.
".... the limitless self-regard, the law-breaking, the pleasure in inflicting pain, the compulsive desire to dominate. He is pathologically narcissistic and supremely arrogant. He has a grotesque sense of entitlement, never doubting that he can do whatever he chooses. He loves to bark orders and to watch underlings scurry to carry them out. He expects absolute loyalty, but he is incapable of gratitude. The feelings of others mean nothing to him. He has no natural grace, no sense of shared humanity, no decency."
140
@explorer08
Wilhelm II is also a good match.
"superficial, hasty, restless, unable to relax, without any deeper level of seriousness, without any desire for hard work or drive to see things through to the end, without any sense of sobriety, for balance and boundaries, or even for reality and real problems, uncontrollable and scarcely capable of learning from experience, desperate for applause and success"
8
@explorer08
If Ambassador Darroch had settled on using "King Richard III" as a code nickname for the Orange One, the latter would have been flattered by being described as a King....
Such a perfect description of our American tyrant.
11
We mustn't get used to this, America. We really mustn't.
So a large majority of foreign diplomats serving in this country regard Mr. Trump's White House as chaotic--ill-run--unpredictable--erratic. No real long-term policy--no strategic vision--nothing but a never-ending torrent of whims and impulses.
Plus a healthy dose of vitriol flung from a window at whoever or whatever irritates or annoys our Commander-in-Chief.
WHAT ELSE IS NEW?
You didn't have to be a foreign diplomat to know that. You didn't have to live on Embassy Row. You didn't have to be a beltway insider--in close touch with some powerful (and anonymous) mover-and-shaker high up in the U.S. government.
Everyone on earth knows it. People who (moved by an arduous sense of duty--or an unappeasable ambition) TALK about Mr. Trump's White House all the time. When they leave his service. When they're still IN his service. They talk about the man incessantly.
As a retired high school teacher, I've had students about whose work habits I know less than I know about our President's work habits.
Or lack of them.
His first volleys (after Mr. Darroch's unlucky frankness) were somewhat restrained. "Not well thought of"--"Not well liked." THAT didn't last long.
Now we get "wacky" and "stupid." THAT'S the Donald Trump I know. And don't love.
Time to be rid of this man once of for all. 'Cause after all--
--we mustn't get used to this, America.
We deserve better than this.
A LOT better.
62
@Susan Fitzwater: We are living in a surreal nightmare. I, for one, feel trapped in Trumplandia and am trying to find the door to let me escape.
3
Kim Darroch is a career professional who has devoted his life to serving his country. His assessment was true.
Any astute observer would conclude that the Trump regime is amateur hour writ large, with an enormous serving of corruption. A cast of dunces, wannabes, fourth stringers, grifters, and criminals. Culled from god knows where.
If this is the assessment of a professional from a nation that has been our staunchest ally, imagine what those who don’t wish us well, and there are many, are up to. Donald is fooled by the birthday cards, the sword dances, the glowing orbs, the flowery “his excellencies” etc. As they say, the truth hurts and there’s no fool like an old fool.
54
So, we’re going to have to find a qualified American Ambassador who has only nice things to say about BORIS JOHNSON?
I don’t think so....
7
Likewise Australia. It was many, many months before the Trump "administration" even bothered to appoint an ambassador. Then he was suddenly withdrawn and sent elsewhere. No-one here will publicly say how flaky US foreign relations have become. Just vote him out!
40
This is almost no news flash...Trump is an extremely unpopular president. First because of his disgusting foul personality and secondly his retrograde, backward, out of touch policies. He is not liked by our allies or most thinking people around the world. The US may be doing well economically, in spite of trump's trades wars and tariffs, but three quarters of Americans know what Mr. Darroch said is true....The only people in the dark about trump are Fox noise sheep. You should not get fired for telling the truth.
38
@W
We would all get fired for telling the truth though.
Diplomacy? Just another element of utter chaos that this abominable administration and its toadies in Congress have inflicted upon the functioning of the US government and upon our formerly respected international stature.
This plague cannot end soon enough. And my yet-unborn grandchildren will be repairing the damage to our country.
21
"It could have been any of us."
Maybe so. But there's a time and place. Darroch clearly didn't realize this and caused a rift between his country and its most powerful and long serving ally, the US.
3
So please suggest the right time and place, if not in diplomatic cables?
3
@Mike Edwards Darroch did nothing but his job in exactly the same way American ambassadors do. Trump when confronted with these leaks could, were he an adult, simply have joked Darroch wouldn't be getting a Christmas card this year. Instead he lashed out with insults and a direct attack on Theresa May.
3
@Mike Edwards
No. The root cause of the rift is the current U.S. administration which is, in fact, inept.
Speaking of rifts, what about all of trump's taunts, insults and unfounded criticisms directed at British politicians? At least Darroch was telling the truth, unlike trump.
2
It's unlikely that under any administration that the ambassador could effectively continue with this statement in the public record, justified or not.
5
Living near the nation's capital and attended embassy events, I can say that the ambassadors comments are held by most Western nations. It's not the American people just the present government and the difficulty in diplomacy. Sadly, the only nations who are winning are those that know they have to flatter our POTUS and say how great he is. I believe all are holding their breath and hoping the present madness ends soon as well as trying to form alliances with outside countries.
What's even sadder is our leaders from both parties trying to portray this as normal, thereby not dealing with it. We used to have a co-equal branch of the government that censured POTUS.
732
@tardisgal
Co-equal branch of government was always a myth. A myth made somewhat real by leaders who cared for this country, regardless of whether or not their policies were necessarily good for all of its citizen.
The moment we give powers to people who rise to power for the sake of it, and for the sake of the privileges it brings, U.S. constitution has plenty of loopholes that makes a rise of a dictatorship fairly easy. As we are witnessing today.
Doesn't anyone who pay attention to U.S politics know what Darroch said is true? Whether you support Trump or not, isn't it obvious that this Administration is chaotic? Killing the credentials with false accusation and blatant insults has given Trump so much success in covering up. But politics is a religion in this country, and god untouchable.
34
@Robin Johns
What a lovely, mature stance. I think the Dems are spineless too -- but I'm voting. You might as well throw your support behind Trump.
44
@tardisgal It's because out POTUS is just one big child baby and whenever you disagree with him or call him out on an idea, he immediately cuts you off to proceeds to keep you at arms length. It's hard to keep any kind of diplomatic relationship with an administration that doesn't care about foreign relationships or that loves to stonewall you.
11
It'd be fair to say that assessment from US diplomats abroad of the leaders of their host nation probably border in similar descriptions. And of course, that freedom of speech is important for policy.
I live in Spain. I was reading through the comments of articles in El Pais, El Mundo and ABC when this story broke and most readers agreed that the British Ambassador had violated "diplomacy". But they weren't taking into account that his first duty is to his country, his PM and his Queen not to POTUS. Those assessments aren't meant to be read by joe public nor anyone in the US administration.
507
@leoelfeo And how many of us would want to see our candid, private comments released to the entire world.
57
@Anne W. You nailed it. Whoever leaked the info is to blame - not Darroch and, frankly, not the US Administration/President. It's a UK problem that the UK needs to solve.
21
@Dtwo Russia? They have not stopped their cyber warfare against the west.
27
Kim Darroch’s comments were exactly what could have been expected from a seasoned envoy. Most diplomats representing their countries in Washington have shared Darroch’s views.
It was Trump’s harsh response that shocked the civilised West.
In Britain, Darroch’s boss, Jeremy Hunt, Theresa May and senior officials defended Darroch for doing his job, while not sharing his views.
Boris Johnson, Hunt’s prime minister contender, literally threw Darroch under the bus in order not to enrage Trump who wants him to succeed May.
For someone who wants to be prime minister, Johanson has failed to stand up for hard-working civil servants, who have done nothing wrong other than serving their country.
944
@J. von Hettlingen - correction, the UK government said they don't "necessarily" share Darroch's views.
(They do share his views)
39
@J. von Hettlingen
"Boris Johnson, Hunt’s prime minister contender, literally threw Darroch under the bus. . ."
"Literally"? Really? 1st degree murder by a PM candidate, and on a British diplomat? Now, that would have been a scandal!
18
J. von Hettlingen, it's unfortunate that someone leaked words meant to be private, but they did and there's no unringing a rung bell.
Kim Darroch was shown to be unctuous and oily by saying in public that Donald Trump was "absolutely charming" and in private that he was "clumsy and inept". That just will not do.
This is all just a tempest in a teapot and it will soon blow over and be forgotten. Someone else will take Kim Darroch's spot and throw the same kind of parties in his stead and file the same kind of meaningless criticisms in private.
Meanwhile, important things will continue to bypass ambassadors and be dealt with instead by people who actually get things done.
2
A carpet bagger called Neil Farage is lining up to promote his candidacy. People like him should be considered traitors by the British because he isn’t looking after their interests -just feathering his own.
He has ruined a middling power with grandiose visions that emanate from an era long gone and will never be regained. Sadly many people in Britain have bought his lies and misrepresentations to create a real political, economic and institutional crisis.
13
@Rh Hey! That's the guy Trump wanted for Britain's PM.
It has been obvious from the start of his presidency that trump has absolutely no use for professionals or educated, informed people in any role. trump left dozens of ambassadorships, even in key countries of important allies, or close to geo-political hotspots.
Our own State Dept was purged of experienced professionals. If trump sees no reason to listen to the counsel of professionals who have devoted their careers to protecting OUR nations' best interests it is not surprising he has not extended any courtesy to statesmen/professionals from other countries.
And since he blindsides his own people with off-the-cuff policy decisions, and then changes his mind twice in 48 hours.....
Except if you are a despot, autocrat, tyrannical ruler, such as Mohammed Bin Salam, Edorgan, Kim Jung Un, Duterte: then trump can't fawn over you and call out his love for you and your death squads enough.
what have we become?
73
@Karen And so we're expected to trust professionals, the educated and informed? That gets scary also!
I feel sorry for the Brits. They have their own Donald Trump in the form of Boris Johnson!
40
- it not only ''could have been'' -
It HAS BEEN the comments of ''everybody in the world''.
-(even from ''Rocket Man'')
10
Well Trump didn't have time to get to know the British ambassador because he was too busy showing the Russian ambassador around the Oval Office.
83
@Diego
Planting bugs is easier that deciphering Trump's babble.
1
I am so sorry this happened -- I feel very ssad for Ambassador Darroch, a distinguished and honest diplomat, and his family. Clearly, however, he could not continue to try to represent the UK to a White House and State Department as hostile as the one in the US now.
I am reminded, oddly, of the treatment that the US ambassador to Berlin (i.e., Germany) from about 1934 to 1939 faced. He was an honest, straightforward "professor," not a trained diplomat, to be sure. He sent home the clearest warnings then about Hitler, the SS, the SA, and the rest of the Nazi government. However, his opponents in the US State Department in those years -- skeptics, conservatives, quite possibly sympathizers of the Nazi regime -- paid him little attention and did "share" his alarms, warnings, and detailed descriptions of what was happening in Berlin and other cities, not to mention what was happening to the Jews and other "undesirables."
I had a horrible thought that something similar has happened to the Ambassador -- somebody leaked his cables home precisely so that people would perhaps not take him seriously. SO: I hope you find the leaker(s) -- I doubt anybody in the US government can identify them (if we did it!). !
22
Darroch deserves to lose his position as Britain's Ambassador mainly because he did a poor job of protecting a confidential memo that he authored. As the top British representative in the US, the ultimate responsibility of guarding his country's secrets rested with him.
Plus, ask yourself what would have happened in London if the US Ambassador was caught saying similar things about the Queen or the Prime Minister?
Darroch got caught, too bad for him.
3
It wasn’t Darroch’s end that leaked the communications. The leak came from London. If anyone deserves to lose their job for this it should be his superiors (either Jeremy Hunt or Alan Duncan) for failing to protect an ambassadors secure communications with the Foreign Office.
Just wait until our communications are hacked. We are no better.
Sure a bunch of leftist diplomats dislike Trump ... he's not a pushover Democrat. If you notice, foreign countries love dealing with leftist U.S. presidents and they loathe Republicans who won't roll over for them.
2
He’s an ambassador representing a center right (increasingly right wing) government. Not a leftist. The idea that anyone who criticizes the Trump administration must be a leftist is mind boggling. Most of those who subscribe to this idea have a pretty limited grasp on how our government runs and know even less about foreign governments.
18
@MnemonicMike Foreign countries like North Korea and Russia, for example?
1
@MnemonicMike Plus, Trump is the only politician intelligent enough to recognize George Washington's air victory over the Brits during the Revolutionary War. We'd've never won had old George not taken the Brit's airfields!
Mike, as the article states, EVERY government in the world recognizes that Trump is an empty suit, albeit a quite dangerous one.
3
On the one hand we have the crazies in charge; on the other, the quasi-oppositional cowards.
Soon, our onion-skinned Head of State and Commander-in-Chief will refuse to communicate with any serious person since no serious person can take this man-child seriously and will ultimately say so.
The judgment of the whole DC diplomatic corps, including Russia I might add, harbors no illusion about our unstable and intellectually-disabled president's unfitness to serve in any public capacity, much less the presidency of the US.
We Americans have been incredibly lucky. We have not yet encountered an existential crisis, such as 9/11 or Pearl Harbor, requiring stable, intelligent, cold and calculating leadership, anchored at its core by the Constitution, democratic tradition and a sense of decent humanity to navigate strategically to safety.
What we have is a band of blind mice leading a carnival of furious clowns over a cliff overlooking a formless black void.
Meanwhile, we have a Democratic Party that dithers over seeking an end to the real existential danger of administrative ineptitude and obstruction through articles of impeachment that scream to be invoked.
12
Loved the metaphor, but trying to figure out who the blind mice are. Are they the ideologues who espouse the policy positions the Trump “administration “ takes? But surely that can’t be ... reasonable people everywhere, not just Mr. Darroch, have been trying to discern, without success, what policy direction emanates from the amazing Mr. Trump’s phantasmagorical cartoon funhouse.
2
It's not just ambassadors who have distain for Trumplethinskin. Many citizens have to live within the black hole of this administration's making.
19
"“The fact that Sir Kim has been bullied out of his job, because of Donald Trump’s tantrums and Boris Johnson’s pathetic lickspittle response, is something that shames our country,” said Emily Thornberry, the British opposition Labour Party’s shadow foreign secretary. “It makes a laughingstock out of our government....Just imagine Churchill allowing this humiliating, servile, sycophantic indulgence of the American president’s ego to go unchallenged.”"
More Emily Thornberrys please.
More candor, less cant.
50
The real story is who leaked it and why.
19
It’s a shame that a career diplomat with the experience and excellent record of service he has feels he has to resign as the result of our loser president’s temper tantrum.
25
@Robin Scheu
See, State Department, U.S.
This British Ambassador is not helping his government by giving them information that he has gleaned from the left wing press in America; he is merely joining in the anti-Trump propaganda as a fellow traveler.
2
@Scarlet Pimpernel you believe that he knows what he knows from reading- no 'gleaning from'-- 'the left wing press', and not due to his position and connections as the British Ambassador? Wow. That seems unlikely to me.
21
@ Scarlet Pimpernel Clearly you haven't followed this story in its entirety. The comments of the ambassador were not given to his government by him, they were leaked. And, as this article points out, what he said about Trump is what most dignitaries say about him in private. He's a disgrace to this country.
2
He gained this opinion by working with the Trump administration. The press had nothing to do with it. All Trump has to do is open his mouth to see his ignorance!
If the same thing had happened to Obama, I dare say he would have met privately with the Ambassador to find out why he said those things. He would most likely have continued working with that person. We have a thin-skinned child in the White House now and anyone who does not openly idolize and praise him is persona non grata.
35
@Alex
So what if it is? It's all FAKE! Don't you get it?
The president who's placed a lock down on his academic records being released, (no doubt, on pain of unrelenting legal action) calls one of the most respected diplomats in the world, a “very stupid guy’’.
How does anyone deal with a self-proclaimed "very stable genius" who, from the vast amount of available data, appears to lack the cognition of a first grader?
How does a sane, reasonable person continue to behave sanely and reasonably toward a cohort that supports such an incontrovertibly abominable man?
Did I miss the part in the fairy tale where the ogre becomes the hero?
Supposedly, a 44% approval rating. The highest of his administration. Still not good, by historical standards. But surely, far, far better than it OUGHT to be.
We can do better, America.
27
Clearly, Britain's highly-experienced Ambassador (a career civil servant, not a "political" appointee, as many U.S. Ambassadors are), was betrayed by some of his "Lords and Masters" in London, who leaked his valid, and extremely accurate, assessments of the current U.S. Administration.
Interestingly, since this story broke on this side of the Atlantic, the aspiring successor to Theresa May as British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has singularly failed to defend his Country's Ambassador - perhaps because he has long appeared to be in thrall to his fellow New Yorker, President Trump, whose "approval" of his candidacy has seemed quite nauseating to many people.
I suspect I'm not alone in recalling that "45's" own Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, made critical remarks quite similar to those attributed to Britain's Ambassador, stating (on the record) that the current President is "pretty undisciplined, doesn't like to read, and repeatedly attempts to do illegal things", and (off the record, as quoted in Bob Woodward's meticulously-researched Book) that the President is "just a moron".
The sad lessons from this unfortunate episode must surely be that (i) a conscientious Ambassador has been "shafted" for discharging his duty to report, honestly, to his superiors on what he has actually experienced in the Country to which he was assigned and (ii) this mercurial, narcissistic, undisciplined President remains determined to prove that he is moronic...
36
@Ireland's Eye I think you're right, on all accounts
6
The apple-cart has overturned.
The rapid destruction of US institutions and US norms under Trump, the lambasting of the free press and vilification of long-standing allies, the normalising of a nuclear North Korea, a murderous Saudi ruler, the laughing about election meddling with Putin - a dangerous idiot is the leader of the Free World.
Now Boris Johnson, probable next UK Prime Minister refused to back the UK's own ambassador in a TV debate last night for fear of upsetting Trump. Trump's influence is global. He is effectively dictating who can be the UK's ambassador.
When (if) this madness comes to an end, will anyone be left unscathed?
17
Mr. Darroch's comments probably echoed those going through the mind of Queen Elizabeth when he was England.
16
Just a decade ago, Tony Blair was angrily derided by Brits for being in George W. Bush's pocket, from bromance to lackey status. Get ready for Boris Johnson's transatlantic bootlicking in service to Trump's daily chaos agenda, especially if there's a hard Brexit. Maybe joint appointments at the hairstylist next?
9
I thought that being a diplomat meant being diplomatic
Silly me.
Got what he deserved.
6
@simon sez accuracy over diplomacy...
6
@simon sez
His job is to report, warts and all.
He was masterful in his diplomacy, he toned it way down with euphemisms to blunt the edge.
2
@simon sez
And what do you say about Trump's immature response?
1
Elizabeth Warren has a comprehensive, doable plan to rebuild our State Department and re-emphasize the importance of on-site diplomacy. None of the Democratic candidates would be “inept” at diplomacy; she’d be outstanding.
32
When WikiLeaks published Sec. Clinton's not-too-kind opinions of foreign leaders, Clinton was moved to apologize, She was told by the "offended" parties not to worry as they had the same opinion of her.
This goes as far back Roman ambassadors writing home about the Parthians. Ambassador are supposed to be frank in their assessments of countries in which they are stationed. The difference is that the malignant Trump personality has made it an issue.
16
The small group of Tory fantasists who have a vote in the leadership election that seems fated to bring Boris Johnson to power are just like the Trumpists. They all subscribe to the doctrine of "tell me what I want to hear, and don't confuse me with the facts." The ambassador was just doing his job in telling the truth. Beware the people on both sides of the Atlantic who don't want to hear it.
27
While everyone points to an expected internal leaker, the most logical source of the leaks is Russia.
They have the most to gain from Brexit and the dissolution of the United Kingdom.
They also gain by damaging Great Britain's relationship with America.
15
@Owat Agoosiam Absolutely — we should look for Russia’s fingerprints on all such events, from the power outages in South America on Election Day (were they practicing for our 2020 election?) to this effort to further destabilize the alliances that have kept Russia in check. Honestly, if I weren’t losing sleep over it, I’d be in awe of their masterful, insightful plan to cause Sudden Colony Collapse without a shot being fired.
1
@Owat Agoosiam
Hmmm. Yeh, you could be right there.
Give it a few years after Trump is out of office for the true story of how he was viewed by diplomatic offices and foreign governments. It isn't pretty now; it will be horrific later.
17
The only people Trump seems to keep out of the dark are Russians and Saudis. The real question is how much is he compromised by them?
Every move Trump makes seems to be in the direction of a Bankruptcy King, both politically and financially, except for the rich chosen few!
7
@Barney Feinberg Source? I'm no Trump fan, but our economy and unemployment rate disagree with you. America is doing great whether you want to believe it or not.
2
Don’t be naive Bryce. What happens when, inevitably, the economy isn’t going great or some real crisis confronts America. You will be without allies on the world stage. Don’t think an isolationist America will prosper in the long run. All the Trump Administration is doing is to play into the hands of Putin and China. Sadly, long gone are the days that America can be regarded as ‘the leader of the free world.’
1
@Bryce Everything looked great for the Bankruptcy King when he was buying casino's in Atlantic City too. People are putting their money into the stock market, seems much like before the '29 crash, PE ratio's make little sense for the high flyers.
Employment and gainful employment are different with people carrying two or more jobs to make ends meet.
Gerard Araud, the former French ambassador was fairly candid on the PBS News Hour a month or so ago. He implied that Trump was in over his head, and that the administration doesn't understand global realities.
21
This Administration is dangerous to worldwide economic and military stability. Any responsible ambassador from a foreign country would have to report the opaque decision-making process of the President and his advisors, and the President’s amply demonstrated ignorance and child-like attention span.
And, any responsible ambassador of another country would consider themself fortunate to NOT be assigned to the US post.
9
Oh dear me! That cheeky American president is making it difficult for hangers on who cultivated profitable relationships so that we could enjoy the best cuisine and upscale hotels at the expense of the bread winners and producers. We once lived by clearing our throats until we deduced which way the wind was blowing. Are those halcyon days gone forever?
2
Once an unnamed member of Congress made an insulting racist remark to President Obama in the Oval Office, and then walked out. VP Biden took off after the man to reprimand him, but was stopped by Obama.
Biden told him you're the president; he had no right to be so disrespectful, to which Obama replied that it goes with the territory; that he had been given the honor of being elected president. He further said that not everyone was happy about that and he had to take the bad with the good.
I am trying to imagine trump saying anything remotely that intelligent, accepting, and classy.
How sad for our country that such a small, insecure individual was ever elected to the highest office in the land. We deserve better than trump..
46
@Gardengirl perhaps we who participated in our country's last election do not deserve this oafish administration, but those who by elected not to elect gave us all what we got.
@Gardengirl It looks like theres a pretty good chance you're gonna get him again.
1
I appreciate the closing paragraph, quoting a clueless State Department comment, that tacitly underlines what the Age of Trump has brought to both domestic and foreign affairs: "The two nations “share a bond that is bigger than any individual,” the statement said, “and we look forward to continuing that partnership.”
1
Darroch committed the cardinal sin of diplomacy. He told the truth.
8
Every single day there is a revelation about how unqualified and inept Trump is. It is obvious to most. So how is it that 40% or more of Americans think he is doing a good job and would vote for him again? I don’t understand and I never will.
20
@ann Didn't it get up to 48% recently? He is well within reach for 2020.
2
@ann Because Americans are the world's number one low information thinkers that's why...
1
And yet, my lovely neighbor STILL claims that the USA is the "laughing stock of the world" because of the Obama administration. Talk about missing the forest for the trees. This guy spent eight years talking about how "toxic" Obama was, when we wasn't, but now faced with a real toxic situation, doubles down and indignantly supports Trumpf no matter what.
True regressive through and through.
12
@Moehoward He’s obviously watching alternate universe TV and friends.
Trump is only at ease doing photo-ops with dictators and tyrants,
where conversation is at the minimum. He "radiates insecurity", when more is expected, hence avoidance, lashing out and insults.
Although, I am shocked that no one of any consequence in the White House visited the Ambassador, met with him or had the courtesy to return calls. It's far more dysfunctional than imagined. "Inept" and "chaotic" were extremely diplomatic words to use.
9
No surprises. Our “Apprentice” president and his fake, or unstaffed, administration stumbles onward. There will be years of repair ahead after 2020.
5
I understand that Ambassadors need to be able to communicate genuine feelings about certain persons and situations. However, when speaking of a country's leader, this communication can be done in a respectful manner while still conveying the ambassador's thoughts. All ambassadors are now put on notice. If you disrespect the office of the president, you get ghosted.
34
I don't believe the ambassador was disrespectful to the presidency. He told his superiors in London his truthful opinion of Trump. Apparently neither Trump or his slavish followers can handle the truth.
336
@Jeff Isn't it interesting how often Trump's supporters focus on respect for the "office of the president" rather than bother trying to convince anyone that this individual has earned anyone's respect through his 70+ years on this earth?
245
@Jeff
Perhaps. But applying your logic to Trump, he'd be right in there elbowing his way to the front of the ghost line.
70
Sounds like the Trump administration has done little to foster relationships with diplomats of our allies. Let’s hope there isn’t a real emergency that forces them to respond quickly and collaboratively.
30
Thanks to Trump, another good person doing a good job bites the dust.
We CANNOT afford 5 1/2 more years of this.
With 85 % of registered Republicans still supporting him the only best way to ensure he is not re-elected is to vote.
PLEASE VOTE in 2020.
95
@Jeff
What has Trump delivered?
14
@Jeff
Congressional Democrats HAVE given concrete plans on the environment North Korea,Iran and China, all critical of Trumps! It's out there to see!
Republican senators all in lock step with THEIR president stand in the way to oppose Trump!
9
@Jeff
Just don't assume that you are the majority! You are free to vote for whomever you please but a vote for the worst in history does not count for rationality. And about those concrete plans you demand from Democrats, what difference does it make to you? Trump doesn't give one concrete plan for anything he does and if he does that "concrete" plan is not good for even a day.
2
Seriously, why appoint another person to replace Derroch? Trump and his administration will continue to fumble their way through one massive mis-calculation after another. I would not be surprised to find America in a war soon.
19
@Lmb There is almost a zero chance of America ending up in a war with someone. Thinking otherwise is just ignorant. Trump doesn't want war with anyone. He's the one trying to pull the U.S. out from the ME. Apart from that he knows that a war would end his chances for reelection. The U.S. is pretty safe from any major conflict breaking out in the near future.
Our current president has no use for long term alliances - all is transactional. If you remember the book Flatland, Mr. Trump reminds me of the monarch of Pointland - all is Trump, there is nothing besides Trump. He cannot possibly conceive of something bigger than himself, of anything outside of himself.
The most distressing part is that so many of our allies feel this way about him that one has to wonder about the permanent damage he has wrought - how long, if ever, before it's repaired?
22
@Fredd R all good points, Trump is almost universally-hated in Canada - and we live next door to you guys. Only a few hard alt right dummies up here like him, but they have no influence.
Crimea, Syria, South China Sea, Libya, etc: Apparently THESE instances of complete failure during Obama's administration are how US foreign diplomacy is supposed to work? If so, I'll take Trump's methods any time.
6
@1coolguy The situations you mention obviously still exist and are real problems for many nations. Trumpdiplomacy has not dealt with any of these in any meaningful or positive way.
12
@1coolguy I am sure you have a very low-interest threshold and are jealous because Obama's presidency (two terms) was considered a success. The Nobel prize winning Obama also has class and elegance and intelligence. I guess Obama just has much more charm than trump will ever have, that is why he is loved!
1
The two nations “share a bond that is bigger than any individual,” the statement said, “and we look forward to continuing that partnership.”
This was from the US State Dept about the British Ambassador.
It could be, should be, from the American People to other nations about Donald Trump.
9
Say what you will, but the one feature I love about the British form of government is their weekly question time.
Can you imagine Trump being required to stand before Congress and answer questions for an hour, unscripted, without Ivanka holding his hand?
I fully back Labour's response, as much as the US "should" back their diplomats. "Boris Johnson's pathetic lickspittle response." is pure gold.
We should also keep in mind, the myth of Thatcher and Reagan's special relationship. In declassified archives the British had a lot of disdain for the Reagan who was described as homophobic, uninformed, disinterested and, not to put too fine a point on it, “a Bozo.”
Interestingly Reagan while suffering from Alzheimer's was still higher functioning than Trump.
58
@Don
Question time? But that may cut into executive time or strip party time.
5
He should not have resigned,he should have admitted it and stayed right where he was.
6
@DC He did what the correct thing to do for a diplomat, when you become a problem you step aside. Governments are not about a person they are about a people and a country.
Unfortunately we have a leader who is only about himself not about the country or the people.
9
It’s sad that the ambassador had to resign for telling the truth about Trump’s ineptitude. If only Trump could tell fact from fiction.
9
@Jack Noon Or had any respect for fact.
2
I'm certain the ambassador's frustrations with this circus of policy confusion, will be a delight for Fox News and the Trump loyalists. Trump's resentful supporters get pleasure from outraging liberals or here, a man who probably speaks with one of those fancy British accents and uses words in whole sentences like all those other elites.
His outrage and frustration is their pleasure. Our liberal American outrage gives them pleasure. Similarly, the detention of children gives them a true mean sadistic pleasure, both for the questionable belief that it is an effective immigration deterrent and also for the outrage it creates.
They have found a winning formula for the destruction of American norms. The more they fake, fail and flounder, the more they succeed with their base.
11
A big takeaway that was reinforced in my mind, is that none of your supposed secure communications are truly secure. Instead of dancing around going,, "It's because it's true...ha, ha, ha....", I would be wondering how any secure communication got out in public.
3
This is unprecedented in our history.
But, as usual, con-man Trump says that the ambassador is no longer welcome in Washington, which causes Darroch to say he can't do his job, so he resigns.
Trump is dangerous and reckless in his amoral senseless incompetency.
Who stole the secret cables of Darroch?
Sounds like something Russia would do to continue it's plan to divide the European Union and the international alliances formed after WWII. Our best ally, England is told to get lost.
17
@Paul Many in the UK believe the leak came from the Brexit camp. It was well known that the ambassador was a Remainer and now is a good chance to a pro-Brexit, pro-Trump ambassador. House of Cards.
2
@Paul
I don't think Russians did it because they know Trump better than anybody else. I think this revelation became public only to insult Trump if that is even possible which means, it could even be our own?
1
@Paul
Amen from Chapel Hill.
1
Perhaps, the special relationship, in this administration, is only with Putin and Kim Jon-un and Saudi Prince. Diplomacy is an advanced political tool for intellectuals and strategist; there is nothing like that in this administration.
33
Sadly, the utter insignificance of the Foreign Service runs the other direction as well during an authoritarian populist government.
During most of my life I could name the AMERICAN Ambassadors to the primary countries, England, France, Russia, Germany, Mexico, Canada, etc., whether GOP or Democrat.
I don't think I can name a single one under Trump.
They just don't matter, because TRUMP ALONE matters in the GOP Populist universe.
Astounding.
40
Unfortunately for the diplomatic corps their job is not to insult the host country's leaders or it's political parties in public. That is a big no-no.
A larger problem is the security of their diplomatic communications. Was it done on purpose to make a point or is it a security breach? Diplomats routinely make unflattering reports if that is what the see. That's part of their job description as official spies.
6
@Andrew It's a security breach, he didn't insult anyone in public. He was only doing what every ambassador does: confidentially report back to their government on the political landscape at any point. It would be very interesting to see what came out if Woody Johnson's confidential emails were leaked...
20
@Andrew Ambassador Darroch did not insult Trump in public. Darroch was doing his job, report on the UK's relationship with the US.
2
@Andrew. If the unvarnished truth is viewed as an insult, what does that say about Donald Trump? The Ambassador was doing exactly what his job calls for him to do. It is no fault of his that the communication was leaked. A bigger man than Donald Trump would have taken the criticism to heart and made improvements, but we all know he is incapable of that.
3
It appears that the "special relationship" the present administration mentioned is the one we had with Britain in 1775, not exactly the best buddy kind. We need somebody who understands the concept of international cooperation to be president. If the present one can't, we need to find someone who does.
10
Back in 1775 we could even share airports.
11
@Joan In California From what I understand, the 'special relationship' stems from WW2 and is a euphemism for the sharing of intelligence. Especially relevant during the Cold War.
4
@Mandylouwho - one phrase 5-eyes, we work together. But then we seam to only have one-eye any more, and he does not read.
1
With Trump as president it certainly not business as usual and the ambassadors are not always the real representatives of the people of their respective countries. Ambassadors should have humility and understanding that a leader of the democratic country owes primary allegiance to the country that elected him or her and not even to an ally or friendly country . Over the years Europeans have taken undue advantage of the USA right until the Obama administration, showed disregard to American guidance and had America come out to bail them out at the last minute.
A humble ambassador from India to the USA once in 1985 introduced some 1000s of Indian Americans gathered to hear the visiting Indian prime minister as the "real long term ambassadors" I often wonder what official ambassadors do. They seem to be pompous untrustworthy spies and communicate or leak negative thoughts. Sir Kim Darroch exmplified how not to be the top diplomat. His resignation was well justified and he can freely share his thoughts with the world. Britain at the height of chaos itself should fix the Brexit mess and have a prime minister soon who can sort out its mess.
3
Trump’s decision is correct. In case we disagree, remember that the Mexican President, Mr. Calderon, applied the same principle to Obama’s envoy to Mexico City, Mr. Pascual, for disparaging the Mexican military. Aren’t these guys masters of diplomacy and in the use of the language to obscure facts? Or are they so arrogant to feel any text sent over the internet is truly confidential? Can you imagine the uproar if anyone of Trump’s ambassadors would have done what Mr. Darrick did?
4
@Son of A. Bierce
You forget that these communications were supposed to be fearless and frank assessments as well as confidential. I am sure all other ambassadors, including American ones in foreign countries, does the same.
16
@Son of A. Bierce
Dude.
This wasn't text sent over the "Internet". It was a secure diplomatic cable the was leaked as a pretty serious security breach on the UK side, probably by someone who is Boris Johnson fan.
"Can you imagine the uproar if anyone of Trump’s ambassadors would have done what Mr. Darrick did?"
You mean like Trump does on a nearly daily basis? The fiasco in Japan. Insulting the Mayor of London, while *in* London. Insulting Merkel. And on, and on, and on ...
Donald Trump is a cognitively impaired individual and he is getting worse by the week.
I disagree with most GOP polices. I didn't think GWB was the shiniest ornament on the tree. But I did not think GWB was suffering from mental decline. Trump very clearly is.
It is shocking, and somewhat terrifying, that conservatives are so in thrall to power and "owning the Libs" that they are willing to ignore the threat to rational governance.
5
@Son of A. Bierce Ambassador Darroch's message was not a text. It was a confidential report which was sent to a select group of UK officials.
1
Pretending that a life-long failure and con artist is somehow a “successful businessman” leads to having a life-long failure installed in office with the assistance of the Russian government. And the life-long failure proves to be just as inept at governing as he was at running casinos. Who could have ever foreseen this disaster?
94
Yet after all the Chaos and Dysfunction of this Administration ...the worst in American History....there is still a Fox Nation of Voters among us as well as the many MAGA RALLY VOTERS....supporting a President endorsed by PUTIN !! After all the hirings,firings,resignations, indictments and convictions,Cohen's testimony and the Mueller Report..you'd think there would be no Trump support at all !! It's just un American !! Who among us thought Voting for this Chaos was a good idea? Too many that's for sure !!
7
Is any of this really news? I mean the details are interesting but everyone knows Trump likes to make decisions by himself, without consulting experts, without consulting his cabinet secretaries or other appointees, maybe consulting with talking heads at Fox, with no concern for US relations with other nations, looking only to enhance his personal wealth and standing with his base, and that Trump is prone to believe conspiracy theories and all kinds of nonsense. We all knew that Trump is a political amateur with no interest in learning anything except how to stay out of jail while enriching himself at taxpayer expense. We all knew that Trump's "best" people are only best at covering for Trump. When the American people have such a low opinion of Trump, why should diplomats think any better of him?
37
This UK ambassador should be able to report to the UK without leaks. But there was a stunning lack of sophistication or substance to what he reported. It's as if he was tweeting or texting his thoughts of the morning. This peek behind the diplomatic curtain is not very encouraging.
2
@Wilbur Clark
He was speaking of the Trump administration.
There is indeed a stunning lack of sophistication or substance to this administration.
3
And Trump's reaction just proved how insecure and unstable he is.
43
So what do you suppose will happen when there's nobody left in England for Trump to talk to, as recent reports indicate could happen?
5
Thanks to the likes of Kim Darroch and Christopher Steele, America and Americans have friends at the pinnacle of it's closest and most important ally the United Kingdom reporting about Trump's collusion with the Russians and obstruction of justice regarding that collusion.
Imagine the incriminating dirt that Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin's KGB aka Russian civilian intelligence, GRU aka Russian military intelligence, FSB aka Russian domestic intelligence and SVR aka Russian foreign intelligence must have on Donald Trump during his sojourns in Russia and America and Europe.
7
What if the person who leaked Darroch's cables, wasn't British?
What if the leakers, were working for Putin?
Everyone's rushing to the conclusion, that the leaker must have been someone in the British Government who wanted to get rid of Darroch.
That might turn out to be the case.
But there are certainly other possibilities, aren't there?
20
Darroch is absolutely correct in his assessment of trump. We all know this, everyone except trump himself.
Just as shocking as trump dissing Darroch and likely to be behind the push to unseat Darroch is trump's comment about trump advising May on how to deal with the Brexit deal. Trump has some nerve to nose into another government's business and then to tell all the world that May is not doing what trump wanted her to do.
If the US congress won't stand up to trump, when will other countries tell trump to bug off? Trump's behavior is beyond all norms for good diplomacy. It's time the world community speaks its mind openly and directly to trump and the misfits in his administration.
22
We in the USA live in an Orwellian world where the more our President and his administration are dysfunctional the more his fan base thinks he was chosen by their Lord. FACTS have no value in this dystopian universe.
24
@Pascale Luse
Yes, and we in South Cackalaki must also claim the odious Lindsay Graham... I feel your pain...
To Rump, reality is nothing but mirrors and smoke.
That’s how he runs his franchise, by mob boss rules.
But there is a way to change this. The Declaration of Independence spells it out.
4 years qualifies as a long time, wouldn’t you all think!?
9
Year after year we read stories about confidential communications that were hacked and published.
Who is doing this? This is the equivalent of breaking into someone's office or residence and stealing and copying their mail.
And look at the results. Mr. Darroch is losing his job as a punishment for doing his job.
This is ridiculous.
6
This is what happens when an ego maniac with zero governance skills gets the foothold to come to the White House. The bully who often behaves like a child has no idea on how things work. No surprise here- he was a failed businessman as reflected by six bankruptcies and survived by the dole from his dad. Running a country is extremely complex and as a result, all of the predecessors had the best experts in their cabinet which included noble laureates and distinguished leaders. Very few skilled members joined his cabinet and everyone left since they could not live with the erratic behavior by the narcissist. We were the world leader and he has turned our country as a joke filled by hatred, relentless lies and division. We have many challenges as they come from rogue countries like Russia, Iran and others. Our alliance with other western countries is the key to global stability and the con man is destroying the very essence of that foundation.
23
@Rm:
your observation:
"Running a country is extremely complex"
just made me think that the difference between
"running" and "ruining" a country is the "i" for "ego".
as to the US having been the world leader
and djt having weakened that position ...
history will take its course and
china will soon take the number one spot.
if you define a rogue state as one that keeps meddling
in other countries' business, the US has implemented
80+ regime changes since its inception - mainly to lay
claim to foreign resources ...
1
@°julia eden careful Julia, a lot of people don't like facts...
It is highly likely that assessments of Trump and his administration coming from any professional organization that deals in any way with that administration has determined exactly what the former ambassador from the UK did. Our own FBI, CIA, Justice Department aside from Barr and other upper level appointees, corporations of all types, the military and on and on. One cannot be a professional who must assess the Trump administration and not come to a similar conclusion. Of course, most will not admit it or act upon it, except to see how they can manipulate Trump's shear ignorance to their favor. This means Trump is very much like the typical US citizens, ignorant and manipulated.
7
Those in the foreign diplomatic community do us no favor when they are courteous and pretend to the rest of the world that we have a normal president. Hold a mirror up to this country, ambassadors. Let’s have more honesty (whether it has to be leaked or not) so that everyone and especially his supporters hear the truth: This president and his entire administration are a disgrace to the United States.
27
Amb. Kim Darroc described his experiences with this administration to his superiors. Trump, in response made personal attacks. The first, while not flattering, maintained a level of professionalism. The latter was as usual, a petulant, immature unprofessional and toxic response which gave [more] proof Amb. Darroc's assessments have been correct all along...
36
Fired for stating the obvious... however, he was the Ambassador. Our world has become a reality TV show...
7
Probable the only place on the planet where "it could have been any of us" isn't totally obvious and needs explaining is the US, it seems. Disdain for immoral narcissists like Trump runs deep among decent people anywhere in the world. The converse is also true; admiration for immoral narcissists like Trump runs high among morally reprehensible people anywhere on the planet. The diplomatic corps of most nations are intelligent, highly educated people who can feel nothing but revulsion by the moral turpitude in the White House.
11
What a way to run a country. Trump bankrupted 6 companies - now you can begin to see why.
7
@garyn And you honestly think that the UK is currently in better shape? (A. You're dead wrong. Just tune into C-SPAN and watch an "episode" of Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesdays.)
@sundevilpeg Just image Donald standing up every Wednesday in front of the house and trying to answer questions from any member on how he is running the country. That is a requirement in UK, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Japan, Hong Kong and Canada (although the day maybe diff).
To be a real leader you need to be able to verbally support your positions, show real thinking behind an action and be prepared to to accept that others may have different positions and not hate them or call them names for having an opposing view.
2
Yet another example of how we all slowly continue to walk into this horrible swamp being created by this administration rather than stand up to the bully.
Every single one of these episodes has a very real consequence of continuing to enable an incompetent individual that has nobody's interest in mind, other than himself.
The further in we go down this path, the harder it will be for everyone to get out.
5
I don't get it. We (we Americans) need every (wo)man with the courage and integrity of Sir Kim on deck at this very time.
When are the Senate Republicans going to throw in the towel and ask Speaker Pelosi for the articles? God bless America. May He deliver us from this scourge on the White House.
7
I've often wondered if Trump ever takes a moment to reflect, to realize how disliked he is, how he's viewed as a joke and totally inept, not only here but around the world.
Wishful thinking. Self reflection isn't a personality trait of a narcissist.
8