UK's ex-Ambassador trashes Donald Trump in public roasting after being forced to quit
The UK's former ambassador to the US has trashed Donald Trump in a public roasting - describing the President as acting like a "medieval King".
Lord Kim Darroch accused the American leader of turning the "Oval Office into a reality TV set".
The former diplomat was forced to quit his role in 2019 during Mr Trump's first term after leaked briefings showed him describing the President's government as "dysfunctional", "inept" and "divided".
Speaking to broadcaster Iain Dale at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Lord Darroch defended the letter, which he said was a result of then prime minister David Cameron urging him to be honest and direct.
He told the audience in Scotland's capital that his comments were borne out by Mr Trump's actions as president.
The former ambassador said Mr Trump was ultimately an unpredictable leader as he cited the numerous firings of top officials by the president, the various changes to his tariff policies and the recent move to place nuclear submarines near Russia.
"He's sort of like a medieval king - that sort of capricious decision-making - than he is like a modern politician where consistency is seen as important," he said.
"He doesn't think that's important at all. He thinks that every day is a fresh day. You're basically battling with media.
"You're battling with your opponents. If it suits you today to reverse something you did last week, just do it.
"If you look at tariffs, that's a perfect example of unpredictability of capriciousness."
Lord Darroch suggested that Mr Trump's style stemmed from his time on the US version of The Apprentice.
" Donald Trump was made by reality TV," he said, describing him as "the American version of Alan Sugar".
He added: "He learned a lot about how to present himself from reality TV.
"I think he's now literally turned the Oval Office into a reality TV set."
During his discussion with Mr Dale, the former diplomat praised the Prime Minister's handling of foreign policy, including his relationship with the US President.
He told the broadcaster: "So far, against a lot of predictions, Keir Starmer has proved himself really quite an adept Trump whisperer.
"He's done some clever things, including phoning Trump up after the assassination attempt - that was a clever thing to do, going to see him to sort of kiss the ring before the election."
The peer said the Labour leader had been better on foreign policy than domestic policy, but warned the PM there were "not many votes in foreign policy".
Get Donald Trump updates straight to your WhatsApp!
As the world attempts to keep up with Trump's antics, the Mirror has launched its very own US Politics WhatsApp community where you'll get all the latest news from across the pond.
We'll send you the latest breaking updates and exclusives all directly to your phone. Users must download or already have WhatsApp on their phones to join in.
All you have to do to join is click on this link, select 'Join Chat' and you're in! We may also send you stories from other titles across the Reach group.
We will also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose Exit group. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Asked about defence, Lord Darroch suggested the UK would not be able to cope with a Russian invasion, although he said the chances of that were low.
"The truth is I don't think we are close," he said. "I do think it's less distant than it was five years ago.
"I do think the important point really is that we are woefully underprepared."
Lord Darroch has been outspoken in his criticism of Mr Trump since he was forced to quit his stateside role. Mr Trump had criticised him as as a "stupid guy" and a "pompous fool".
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
8 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump wants to roll back $7 billion in grants for solar projects in low-income communities
The Trump administration is reportedly considering terminating a $7 billion grant program aimed at helping low- and moderate-income families install home solar panels, part of the White House's larger campaign to claw back billions in Biden-era climate spending. The Environmental Protection Agency is in the process of drafting termination letters to the 60 state agencies, nonprofit groups, and Native American tribes awarded the funding through the Solar for All initiative, part of the Biden administration's landmark 2022 climate law. The agency said Tuesday it has not made a final decision about the grants. Environmental groups say if Trump does go through with the cancellation, the effort will face legal challenges. Wiping away the grants would halt many projects before they were complete. The first Solar for All projects, efforts to install residential solar and battery storage systems for tribal communities in Montana and South Dakota, went online in October 2024. 'One in five households on reservations lack access to electricity, and this program was an opportunity to close that gap,' Cody Two Bears, the chief executive of Indigenized Energy, told The New York Times, which first reported on the cancellation effort. 'But those were just two kickoff projects to show what was coming for the next five years.' Critics of the Trump administration and climate experts said cancelling the grants, which were projected to serve about 900,000 people, would be bad public policy that hurts low-income families and the climate. 'Solar for All is laser focused on helping nearly a million low-income families afford electricity at a time when their bills keep going up,' Zealan Hoover, the EPA's former director of implementation, told The Washington Post. 'If the Trump administration is serious about energy abundance and affordability, then they should be working hard to accelerate — not terminate — these grants.' 'Solar for All means lower utility bills, many thousands of good-paying jobs and real action to address the existential threat of climate change,' Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who championed the program, said in a statement on Tuesday. 'At a time when working families are getting crushed by skyrocketing energy costs and the planet is literally burning, sabotaging this program isn't just wrong — it's absolutely insane.' In March, the EPA said it was terminating a separate pot of $20 billion in climate funding, prompting a legal challenge. In April, a federal judge issued an injunction siding with grant recipients. The administration's One, Big Beautiful Bill spending package, signed in July, repealed the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, the single largest portion of climate money under the Biden law, and ordered any unassigned funds back to the U.S. Treasury. There is an ongoing legal battle between grantees and the federal government over the fate of much of the IRA's climate funding. Grantees say much of the funds were legally obligated before Trump took office and immune from presidential action, while the administration claims it claw the funds back.
Daily Mail
9 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
What a Hiroshima-sized blast would have done to LONDON: Unseen government diagrams imagine carnage if nuke was used on UK in 1945
Imagine a very different end to the Second World War. Instead of the US dropping the world's first atomic bombs on Japan, it was the Japanese hammering London with the devastating new weapon. In 1945, that is more or less what was considered by the British government, which was freshly in the hands of Labour's Clement Attlee after his triumph over Winston Churchill at that year's election. Official diagrams envisaged the impact of atomic bomb blasts in London, with the force described as being equivalent to what was unleashed on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9, 1945. One of the two maps - recently seen by the Mail at the National Archives in Kew, West London - imagines the impact of a bomb detonated over Trafalgar Square. It said everything within 1,000 yards of the epicentre - so all of Whitehall, Covent Garden and St James' Palace - would be totally wiped out. Then, there would have been damage 'beyond repair' to areas within a distance of one mile - including the rest of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, the BBC 's headquarters and the British Museum. The likes of St Paul's Cathedral, Smithfield Market, Victoria Station and Marble Arch were within the third ring up to 1.5 miles away, described as 'uninhabitable without major repairs'. The final ring - up to 2.5 miles away - includes King's Cross Station, the Bank of England, Tower Bridge, Battersea Power Station and Regent's Park. Everything in this area would have been 'uninhabitable without first aid repairs', the report's authors said. The two maps feature as part of a file that also includes a report titled, 'An Investigation of the Effects of the Atomic Bombs Dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki', which was compiled after an official visit to the ruined cities by British officials. The other map gives a wider view, showing the impact of five blasts over London. Again the explosions are 'as at Hiroshima and Nagasaki'. As well as the bomb over Trafalgar Square, four others are depicted detonating over Poplar in East London; in Primrose Hill above Regent's Park; in Hammersmith in West London and in Tooting in South London. Collectively, they would have rendered nearly all of Central London a flattened wasteland. Areas such as Lambeth in the south of the capital would have been unscathed, but the borough's inhabitants would have faced having to grapple with a likely total breakdown in law and order and a collapse of the emergency services. Although the official report - which was compiled by the British Mission to Japan - is dated December 1945, the maps themselves were made the following year, as an Ordnance Survey label on them shows. The key on the map detailing how everything up to a distance of 1,000 yards from the epicentre of the blast would have been 'demolished' The foreword to the report optimistically concluded: 'His Majesty's Government consider that a full understanding of the consequences of the new form of attack may assist the United Nations Organisation in its task of securing the control of atomic energy for the common good and in abolishing the use of weapons of mass destruction.' The British mission included scientists and senior officials in the Home Office, War Office and Air Ministry. It laid out in horrifying detail the devastation wrought by 'Little Boy' and 'Fat Man' - the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by US forces. In Hiroshima, the blast - at 8.15am on August 6, 1945 - obliterated everything within the surrounding square mile, killing around 80,000 people in the blink of an eye. At least 30,000 more died from their devastating injuries in the 48 hours that followed. A total of five square miles of the city were consumed by fire storms, and the blast obliterated 90 per cent of Hiroshima's structures. The police, fire and ambulance services were all virtually wiped out, with survivors left to fend for themselves before help arrived from further afield. The attack on Nagasaki came on August 9, after Japan refused to surrender despite the carnage in Hiroshima. The key for the second map, explaining the colours detailing the respective levels of destruction The device - Fat Man - was carried by the B-29 bomber named Bockscar. It claimed at least 50,000 more lives and wiped out a third of the city. Japan finally agreed to the Allies' terms of surrender on August 14. The British Mission's report estimated that, for several reasons, the impact of a blast like the ones that hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki would be less devastating in London. Because of factors such as population density, the presence of well-built houses offering more protection and better rescue services than in Japan, the death toll from a single blast is estimated at 50,000. But the report chillingly added: 'The comparable figure for the German V2 rocket was about 15 dead'. The authors continued: 'The figure of 50,000 dead from one atomic bomb in average British urban conditions is probably the most important which this report contains. 'It shows that much of the most serious effect of the atomic bomb is in producing casualties. 'The problem of providing against and of treating gamma ray casualties is exceptionally grave and difficult.' The explosion of a bomb of the power of those used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have wiped out around 30,000 houses in a British city. Between 50,000 and 100,000 more properties would be rendered temporarily uninhabitable. The report went on: 'Thus a total of roughly 400,000 people might be rendered temporarily homeless'. It was not until the 1970s - when the risk of conflict with the Soviet Union was high - that the Government's public information campaign advising what to do in the event of a nuclear attack was released. The 'Protect and Survive' series told Britons to prepare a 'fall-out room' in which they would need to store enough food and water for two weeks. They were also advised to bring the likes of kitchen utensils, a portable radio, toilet paper, a bucket and a first aid kit. Shortly after the leaflet was released, expert critics said the advice would not be helpful. One said the protective measures were 'illusory' because people would immediately 'panic' in the event of a nuclear attack. The Protect and Survive campaign also included newspaper adverts, radio broadcasts and public information films. Whilst the campaign had been intended for use only in an emergency, it came to public attention in a series of newspaper articles. The Government then decided to publish the leaflet in May 1980 and the public information films were leaked to the BBC and anti-nuclear group CND. The 1984 BBC drama Threads depicted the horrifying consequences of a nuclear attack on Britain. Threads was watched by seven million people on BBC Two and won four Baftas, but it also left many viewers traumatised. The gruesome details - the shocking burns, the radiation sickness, the obliteration of buildings following the imagined attack on the city of Sheffield - were a constant presence in the drama. Dozens of those who watched were so shaken that they called the charity Samaritans for support.
The Guardian
31 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Trump announces he will chair White House taskforce for 2028 LA Olympics
Donald Trump announced on Tuesday the creation of a White House taskforce that he will lead to oversee elements of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. The president signed an executive order establishing the taskforce, which will include JD Vance as well as other cabinet members and government officials. The body will work with local and state authorities on security and transportation for the first Games in the US in nearly three decades. Trump will chair the taskforce, while Vance will serve as vice-chair and an executive director will oversee 'daily operations', according to the White House. 'The LA Olympics is shaping up to be a wonderful moment for America. It's going to be incredible,' Trump said. With the Olympics just three years away, Los Angeles has been rushing to prepare for the Games, which are expected to attract millions of people over the course of 16 days. The city has been planning for the event for years. In recent weeks, city leaders have been engaged in what the Los Angeles Times described as 'high-stakes' negotiations with LA28, the committee managing the event, over the use of city staff, including police officers. Meanwhile, a proposed ballot measure could require some Olympic venues to receive approval from voters in order to be used. The preparations come at a challenging time for LA. The devastating wildfires that tore through the area in January and recovery efforts have strained the region's finances. Meanwhile, the city has clashed fiercely with the Trump administration over aggressive immigration raids in the region and the deployment of US troops into the city over the objections of city and state leaders. Still, LA mayor Karen Bass has said the city will be ready to host the Olympics. And during the peak of this summer's protests, the former International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, expressed confidence in the 'strong' city and said the Games have the support of US leaders. 'With regard to LA, we have the full support of the president of the United States and the governor of California and the mayor of Los Angeles for the success of these Olympic Games,' Bach told the Associated Press in June before he stepped down. Trump's announcement of the taskforce displayed his strong support for the LA Olympicsand his contentious relationship with the region's leaders. In the past, Trump has frequently touted his support for hosting the Games in Los Angeles and his recent budget bill allocates $1bn for security, planning and other Olympic-related costs. At the White House on Tuesday, the president said that the city is 'a little bit of a different place' than it was when selected in 2017, but 'we're gonna bring it back stronger than ever'. Sign up to First Thing Our US morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Trump said that the federal government would consider using the national guard or military during the games, and criticized Bass, calling her 'not very competent', along with Gavin Newsom. The taskforce will 'streamline visa processing and credentialing' for participants and media, the White House said in a statement. The order also directs various government departments, as well as the FBI and the Secret Service to use 'every tool at their disposal' to ensure a safe Olympics, the president said. He also heralded his administration's crackdown on transgender athletes, telling reporters that the US will not let 'men steal trophies from women'. During Tuesday's announcement, the chair and president of LA28 expressed appreciation to the administration for its 'extraordinary' support and praised the creation of the taskforce. 'You've been supportive and helpful every step of the way, and we wouldn't be here without you,' Casey Wasserman said. 'And now with the creation of this taskforce, we've unlocked the opportunity to level up our planning and deliver the largest and yes, greatest Games for our nation ever.'
