Britain to investigate leak of Trump critique

LONDON — The British government on Sunday said it plans to investigate the leak of sensitive memos in which its ambassador to Washington called U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration “clumsy” and “inept.”

“A formal leak investigation will now be initiated,” a Foreign Office spokesman told dpa by phone.

Ambassador Kim Darroch also said the U.S. president radiated “insecurity” in a series of memos, dating from 2017 to the present, that were leaked to the Mail on Sunday newspaper.

“The ambassador has not served the UK well. I can tell you that,” Trump said of Darroch before departing for Washington, D.C., from New Jersey. “We’re not big fans of that man.”

“I can say things about him, but I won’t bother,” Trump added.

Outspoken Trump supporter Nigel Farage called for Darroch to be sacked.

“Kim Darroch is totally unsuitable for the job and the sooner he is gone the better,” Farage tweeted.

Darroch’s decision to “speculate about Trump’s alleged involvement with Russia shows him to be totally unsuitable,” said Farage, who leads the new Brexit Party.

Tom Tugendhat, another Conservative lawmaker, told the BBC the leak was “very serious,” insisting that diplomats “must be able to communicate securely with their governments.”

But Tugendhat defended Darroch’s comments, saying an ambassador to Washington must “represent the interests and wishes of the British people,” not U.S. “sensibilities.”

In an earlier statement, the Foreign Office did not deny the authenticity of the memos, but it said the British public expected ambassadors “to provide ministers with an honest, unvarnished assessment of the politics in their countries.”

In one memo from 2017 Darroch said: “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 also advised British officials to flatter Trump, writing: “For a man who has risen to the highest office on the planet, President Trump radiates insecurity.”

Despite Trump’s characterization of news stories about infighting in his administration as “fake news,” Darroch also said officials should believe them.

“This is a uniquely dysfunctional environment (in the White House),” the ambassador wrote.

Nevertheless, Darroch said Trump should not be written off, as he had been mired in scandal for most of his life but got away with it.

“Trump may emerge from the flames, battered but intact, like (Arnold) Schwarzenegger in the final scenes of ‘The Terminator,’” he wrote.