Before he was sworn in, Trump demanded Theresa May appoint his clownish crony, Nigel Farage, the British Ambassador to the court of clowns in DC. One might imagine Sir Kim Darroch, who had already been announced to be the new ambassador in August, 2015, wasn't amused. Scuttlebutt has it that Trump asked for Farage after a Darroch cable was leaked that said the weak-minded Trump could easily be manipulated by the British government. Today the Mail published a new set of leaked diplomatic memos from Darroch describing Señor Trumpanzee as "inept" and "uniquely dysfunctional." They need a diplomatic memo for that? The U.K. doesn't get cable news anymore? Darroch reported to the Foreign Service that Trump’s presidency could "crash and burn" and "end in disgrace" and wrote that "We don’t really believe this administration is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional; less unpredictable; less faction riven; less diplomatically clumsy and inept." That cable was signed "D."
The paper said the most damning comments allegedly made by Darroch described Trump, who was received by the Queen during a state visit to Britain just last month, as “insecure” and “incompetent.”A memo sent following the controversial visit allegedly said the president and his team had been “dazzled” by the visit but warned Britain might not remain “flavour of the month” because “this is still the land of America First.”He reportedly wrote that the “vicious infighting and chaos” inside the White House-- widely reported in the US but dismissed by Trump as “fake news”-- was “mostly true.”Darroch is one of Britain’s most experienced diplomats whose posting in Washington DC began in January 2016, prior to Trump winning the presidency.The Mail on Sunday said the memos, likely leaked by someone within Britain’s sprawling civil service, cover a period beginning in 2017.In one of the most recent reported dispatches, filed on June 22, Darroch criticised Trump’s fraught foreign policy on Iran, which has prompted fears in global capitals of a military conflict, as “incoherent” and “chaotic.”He allegedly said the president’s assertion that he called off retaliatory missile strikes against the Iranian regime after a US drone was shot down because it risked killing 150 Iranians “doesn’t stand up.”“It’s more likely that he was never fully on board and that he was worried about how this apparent reversal of his 2016 campaign promises would look come 2020,” Darroch reportedly stated, referring to the next presidential election.Britain’s Foreign Office did not dispute the veracity of the memos.“The British public would expect our ambassadors to provide ministers with an honest, unvarnished assessment of the politics in their country,” a spokeswoman said.“Their views are not necessarily the views of ministers or indeed the government,” she added, noting “we pay them to be candid.”“Our team in Washington have strong relations with the White House and no doubt that these will withstand such mischievous behaviour,” the spokeswoman said of the potential fallout from the leak.
The British did not, however dispute Trump's controversial assertion last week that Washington's Contenental Army rammed the Ramparts and captured all the British airbases around Yorktown in 1781. Britain's National Security Adviser, Sir Mark Sedwill, on behalf of the government, had asked for Sir Kim's assessment of the bizarre and amateurish Trump Regime. In the 6 page highly unflattering confidential memo that followed, Darroch "accused Trump of 'radiating insecurity,' filling his speeches with 'false claims and invented statistics' and achieving 'almost nothing' in terms of domestic policy. "As seen from here, we really don't believe that this Administration is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional, less unpredictable, less faction-riven, less diplomatically clumsy and inept."
He therefore compiled a three-point guide for how Britain's politicians and officials should handle this most unpredictable of Presidents. His first suggestion was to 'flood the zone', which meant influencing as many of the President's key advisers as possible.Sir Kim said Trump spends his days in the Oval Office asking his White House team, Cabinet members and senior Republicans for their opinions 'on the business of the moment.'But, crucially, the diplomat also highlighted how the President spends his evenings phoning his friends outside the administration 'seeking reinforcement or a different take'. Many of these friends have been 'cultivated' by the British, Sir Kim boasted.'It's important to 'flood the zone': you want as many as possible of those who Trump consults to give him the same answer,' he wrote. 'So we need to be creative in using all the channels available to us through our relationships with his Cabinet, the White House staff, and our contacts among his outside friends.'Sir Kim's second recommendation was for Theresa May to call Trump more often, stressing 'there is no consistently reliable substitute for the personal phone call from the Prime Minister.''The President respects and likes her,' he added. 'I know they have already talked several times. But in a perfect world, they would be speaking two or three times a month, if not more.'The diplomat's third pointer was to urge Britain's politicians and officials to use flattery and to pander to the President's ego when they come into contact with him.'You need to start praising him for something that he's done recently,' he advised. 'You need whenever possible to present them as wins for him.' In comments which could be viewed as highly patronising, Sir Kim also advised his bosses to make their points 'simple' and 'even blunt', adding: 'as a senior White House adviser told me, there is no upside with this President in being subtle, let alone ambiguous.'His stark assessment reveals the scale of concern at the highest level in the British Government about Trump. By summer 2017, the President had torn up the Paris climate change accord; junked key international trade agreements and launched military strikes against Syria. Western allies were reeling: he didn't seem to care who he upset....And while the President would deride media stories about such chaos as 'fake news', Sir Kim privately advised his bosses in London to believe what they were reading in the newspapers. 'The stories about White House knife fights are, we judge, mostly true: multiple sources and confirmed by our own White House contacts. This is a uniquely dysfunctional environment.' He warned Whitehall to be braced for more presidential outbursts including the use of 'immoderate, sometimes offensive, language', like his attacks on London Mayor Sadiq Khan.'There is no filter,' Darroch advised. 'And we could also be at the beginning of a downward spiral, rather than just a rollercoaster: something could emerge that leads to disgrace and downfall.'But while warning Whitehall that Trump's White House could collapse under the weight of scandal, he also urged the British Government not to write Trump off.The President, he noted, has been mired in scandal most of his life but has always survived....In the face of the chaos, Sir Kim highlighted how German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and French President Emmanuel Macron, were busy distancing themselves from Trump. But Sir Kim warned London: 'I don't think we should follow them.'He admitted it could be rocky, but suggested that sometimes it might make sense to criticise the President, 'provided we are careful'. Sir Kim added: 'Arguably, you get more respect from this President if you stand up to him occasionally-- provided the public comments do not come as a surprise and are judicious, calm and avoid personalising.'Today he may regret that his confidential memo does not meet that test.Indeed, last night, Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, a friend of the President, called for Sir Kim to leave his post, saying: 'The sooner he is gone the better.'
