Trump administration criticized by UK official

— Britain’s ambassador LONDON to the United States described the Trump administration as “diplomatically clumsy and inept” and said he doubted it would become “substantially more normal,” according to a leaked diplomatic cable published Sunday.

The memo was one of several leaked documents published by the Mail on Sunday in which Ambassador Kim Darroch made highly negative statements about the government of Britain’s closest ally.

“We don’t really believe this administration is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional; less unpredictable; less faction riven; less diplomatically clumsy and inept,” Darroch wrote in one memo.

Asked about the leaked cables Sunday, President Donald Trump told reporters that Darroch “has not served the U.K. well.”

The United States and the U.K. enjoy what each describe as a “special relationship” that has held strong since World War II. But the ambassador communicated deep unease with Trump’s foreign policies, which have broken with Britain’s on key issues such as climate change and preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Britain’s Foreign Office did not challenge the authenticity of the leaked documents, which covered the period of 2017 to the present. It called the leak “mischievous behavior” and said the public expects diplomats to provide honest assessments of the politics in the countries where they are posted.

The Foreign Office said the leaks would not harm the productive relationship between the British government and the Trump White House. A formal investigation of the leak may be set in motion in the coming days.

The British Embassy in Washington informed the White House on Friday that the memos would be published over the weekend, according to a person familiar with the matter, and the two sides were in touch throughout the weekend.