President Donald Trump said he “will no longer deal” with the British ambassador to the U.S., who trashed his administration as a “disgrace” in series of leaked memos.
In a pair of tweets on Monday, the president lashed out at Ambassador Kim Darroch, claiming “he is not well liked or well thought of within the U.S.”
“We will no longer deal with him,” Trump wrote.
The president also took aim at Prime Minister Theresa May’s handling of Britain’s exit from the European Union, calling it a “mess” and stating that the “good news” for the U.K. is that her tenure will soon be over.
“While I thoroughly enjoyed the magnificent State Visit last month, it was the Queen who I was most impressed with,” he added.
Despite the president’s claim that Darroch doesn’t have many fans, Washington Post reporter Josh Dawsey tweeted in disagreement.
“Trump’s own team likes the ambassador and regularly dines and socializes at the embassy with him,” Dawsey wrote.
On Saturday, The Daily Mail in London published an article stating it had seen diplomatic cables in which Darroch derided Trump as “incompetent” and “insecure.”
Among the explosive lines is a scathing assessment of the president’s administration:
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.
A statement obtained by The New York Times from the British Foreign Office confirmed the existence of the documents.
“The British public would expect our ambassadors to provide ministers with an honest, unvarnished assessment of the politics in their country,” it read. “Their views are not necessarily the views of ministers or indeed the government.”
According to Reuters on Monday, a spokesperson for May told reporters that the leak was “a matter of regret” and that it had reached out to the White House.
“Contact has been made with the Trump administration setting out our view that we believe the leak in unacceptable,” the representative said.
During an interview with BBC, British International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said he would apologize to Ivanka Trump for the leak when the two meet Monday.