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BY
ADAM TAYLOR (TWP) |
British Ambassador Kim Darroch’s private comments about President Trump were not shocking for those in Washington. The overall opinion among much of the diplomatic elite here is that the U.S. president is “inept” and “insecure,” as Darroch wrote. Trump’s secretary of state once even reportedly dubbed the president a “moron.”
Diplomats often trash their hosts, and it’s often well deserved. André François-Poncet, the French ambassador to Germany in 1935, wrote that Adolf Hitler was “obstinate, stubborn and mean to the point of madness.” A massive leak of U.S. diplomatic cables in 2011 featured one description of Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi as “feckless, vain and ineffective.”
Darroch’s decision to resign, which he announced Wednesday, was not a reflection of the severity of his comments. He might have used more measured language, aware that Trump was uniquely sensitive to criticism and that his messages were at risk of being leaked, especially given the bitter political conflicts back home in London.
But nothing he said was out of place for a diplomat in his position. If there is a breakdown in diplomatic norms here — and yes, there is one — it did not come from the British ambassador. What Darroch said in private about Trump was not unusual. What Trump’s diplomats do in public is what is really shocking.
In Berlin, one U.S. ambassador openly undermines the government; another in Amsterdam became a laughingstock for refusing to answer journalists’ questions, and yet another in Jerusalem openly shows bias in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. From Kenya to New Zealand, the ambassadors appointed by Trump have offended their hosts.
