British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt on Tuesday defended Prime Minister Theresa May and embattled Ambassador Kim Darroch amid a dust-up over leaked memos that called the White House dysfunctional and “inept.”
President Trump fired off a series of tweets Monday saying he will “no longer deal with” the ambassador and that Mrs. May fumbled the Brexit negotiations, so she won’t be missed when she steps down this year.
Mr. Hunt, in a series of his own posts, said Mr. Trump was wrong to attack his compatriots.
“Friends speak frankly so I will: these comments are disrespectful and wrong to our Prime Minister and my country,” tweeted Mr. Hunt, who is running to take over leadership of the Conservative Party and replace Mrs. May as prime minister.
Mr. Hunt said if he wins, then Mr. Darroch will stay on as ambassador despite writing memos that cast Mr. Trump and his team in a poor light and questioned their ability to handle foreign policy.
Mr. Hunt said U.S. diplomats provide frank assessments to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and “so do ours” back home.
“Allies need to treat each other with respect as @theresa_may has always done with you,” Mr. Hunt told Mr. Trump. “Ambassadors are appointed by the UK government and if I become PM our Ambassador stays.”
Mr. Trump himself doubled down on those attacks Tuesday on Twitter, calling Mr. Darroch “wacky,” a “pompous fool” and “a very stupid guy [who] should speak to his country, and Prime Minister May, about their failed Brexit negotiation, and not be upset with my criticism of how badly it was handled.”
The tweetstorm followed a direct snub Monday night, in which Mr. Darroch was disinvited from a Treasury Department dinner honoring the emir of Qatar, whose nation was a British protectorate from World War I into the 1970s.
The issue became part of Britain’s domestic politics Tuesday in a televised debate between Mr. Hunt and Boris Johnson, who also seeks to lead the Conservatives, which have the largest number of seats in Parliament and thus effectively elect the prime minister.
Unlike Mr. Hunt, Mr. Johnson would not commit Tuesday to keeping Mr. Darroch as Britain’s chief Washington diplomat.
“I have a very good relationship with the White House,” Mr. Johnson said. “I think it’s very important we should have a close partnership, a close friendship with the United States.”
U.K. officials, including Mr. Hunt, are still investigating how the cables were leaked.
“Of course it would be massively concerning if it was the act of a foreign, hostile state,” Mr. Hunt told The Sun, a tabloid newspaper. “I’ve seen no evidence that that’s the case, but we’ll look at the leak inquiry very carefully.”
⦁ Bailey Vogt and Andrew Blake contributed to this article, which is based in part on wire-service reports.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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