December 5, 2024
What to Make of the U.K. Ambassador’s Tiff with Trump
Kim Darroch wasn’t guilty of anything heinous, but he had to go — and the attacks on Boris Johnson for saying as much were misguided.
Kim Darroch wasn’t guilty of anything heinous, but he had to go — and the attacks on Boris Johnson for saying as much were misguided.

As every schoolboy at once knew when the news broke, Kim Darroch was bound to resign as Britain’s ambassador to the United States as soon as his dismissive comments were leaked to the Daily Mail and published. To describe the man to whom he is supposed to represent Britain’s diplomatic interests and role in the shaping of common policies as “inept, etc., etc., etc.” meant quite obviously that he could no longer perform those tasks effectively.

Even if President Trump had risen grandly above it all (“a little local difficulty” is the traditional dismissal), Darroch would still have had to resign. No one in either the White House or the British Embassy or those famously glittering Georgetown dinner parties could simply forget what he had said. There would have been a sudden hush or suppressed laughter or (worse!) sympathetic commiserations every time he entered a room. He wore the Scarlet Letter — D for diplomacy, destroyed, and damned — on his fevered brow. It wouldn’t wash away.

Was Darroch then guilty of anything heinous? After all, some of his comments were true enough. Trump is impulsive, as his reaction to the leak more than demonstrated. Not to mention: Kim Darroch, meet Ann Coulter. Every conservative columnist has complained that the president has been unable to get a good many of his programs through, notably the Wall, in part because the courts have blocked him. Trump presents a target that is no bigger than a barn door. Any criticism stands a good chance of hitting a sensitive point.

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See Also:

(1) Kim Darroch leak: Trump axed Iran nuclear deal in ‘diplomatic vandalism’ to spite Obama

(2) Brexit Party SECOND biggest party in UK, new poll shows as Lib Dems drop

(3) Angela Merkel must give health update after shaking, third of Germans say (Ed: She drinks far to much coffee. Can we move on?)

(4) Boris Johnson: ‘I’ll get that deal done and unite the country’

(5) Boris Johnson has crowd in stitches rubbishing no deal Brexit claims ‘Absolute nonsense!’

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