If there were any doubt that the Mail on Sunday’s leaked British diplomatic cables scoop was not a dramatic story, Donald Trump has just removed it.
….thought of within the U.S. We will no longer deal with him. The good news for the wonderful United Kingdom is that they will soon have a new Prime Minister. While I thoroughly enjoyed the magnificent State Visit last month, it was the Queen who I was most impressed with!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 8, 2019
I can’t really believe that Trump’s skin is so thin. Plenty more have said plenty worse — however, ambassadors are not meant to cause such a fuss. But Trump, with his sharp instincts, can sense opportunity in the insult: the new prime minister will be keen to make amends.
And, in his tweets, Trump is keen to hint towards the good news for the Special Relationship and the ‘wonderful’ UK.
May and her government were indeed incapable of working with Trump. She found him too much of an aberration; a man with whom she could not do business.
But it is new brooms time in Britain. President Trump, the most powerful man in the world let’s not forget, admires Boris Johnson, the man everybody expects to become the next prime minister. And I understand that Boris Johnson, when he was foreign secretary, never much rated Sir Kim Darroch, the British ambassador in Washington.
Which bring us on the real story behind the story. Who was behind the leak and what caused it? It’s well known that Brexit supporters have been very disgruntled by May’s inability to capitalize on Trump’s warmth towards Brexit Britain and his eagerness to strike up a quick and ‘beautiful’ free trade agreement. In May’s departure, somebody in the British government has spied an opportunity to turn US-UK relations in a more positive direction. Donald Trump seems to be thinking the same way.
