What Britain’s top diplomats really think of Donald Trump

LONDON — Donald Trump is a man who knows how to hold a grudge.

But Britain’s newly-installed team of top diplomats will be praying he’s prepared to forgive and forget if he wins back the U.S. presidency on Nov. 5.

A study of past comments by the U.K.’s new Foreign Office team shows a host of top ministers have made deeply critical comments about Trump over recent years.

U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy has already attracted scrutiny for a string of past attacks on the Republican Party nominee. As a Labour backbencher, Lammy famously branded Trump a “neo-Nazi sympathizing sociopath” and “a racist KKK and Nazi sympathizer.”

As the prospect of a second Trump presidency has become more real, Lammy has adopted a far more restrained tone — arguing that Trump’s stance on European security is “often misunderstood,” and talking up supposed “common ground” with Trump’s vice presidential pick JD Vance. When pressed about his past remarks, Lammy said all politicians had something to say about Trump “back in the day.”

That’s certainly true of key figures in Lammy’s new ministerial team, all now in place at the U.K. Foreign Office following last month’s general election and tasked with smoothing Britain’s relations with the rest of the world.

Most strikingly, Britain’s new North America Minister Stephen Doughty and Indo-Pacific Minister Catherine West co-sponsored a fiercely-worded parliamentary motion in April 2019 which called on the British government to cancel Trump’s imminent state visit.

The text, which newly-appointed International Development Minister Anneliese Dodds also signed, said the British parliament “deplores the record of U.S. President Donald Trump, including his misogynism [sic], racism and xenophobia” as well as his “sharing of online content related to a far-right extremist organization in the U.K.”

The group also fiercely attacked Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change.

While they lack legislative force, such Early Day Motions are a way for MPs to place their views on the formal record and generate heat for campaigns.

‘Divisive and incompetent’

The attacks on Trump went beyond the parliamentary motion.

Doughty — now North America minister — wrote that Britain should “not honor or be seen to endorse those who attack or stand against our basic values of humanity and equality.”

Appearing on the BBC’s Question Time show, International Development Minister Anneliese Dodds said the U.K.-U.S. special relationship was “based on democratic values which sadly President Trump is not heeding.” | Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images

He called Trump’s travel ban — which slapped restrictions for entry to the U.S. on five majority-Muslim nations — “divisive and incompetent” and accused the administration of overseeing “collective punishment.” And he accused Trump of showing a “complete lack of empathy and consideration of anything that is not squarely in his own self interest.”

West, meanwhile, told Parliament ahead of the state visit that Trump’s travel ban will strike “fear into the hearts of many.”

The volley of attacks continued after Trump’s state visit went ahead in June 2019. Appearing on the BBC’s Question Time show, Dodds said the U.K.-U.S. special relationship was “based on democratic values which sadly President Trump is not heeding.”

In 2021, West pinned her colors squarely to the mast. On the day of Joe Biden’s inauguration, she said: “As Trump and his politics of division and hate leave office for the last time, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ election is a source of hope.”

Forgive and forget?

Allies of Trump may not forget the digs so easily should he win.

Trump’s last U.S. Ambassador to the U.K., Woody Johnson, recently warned Lammy that “people will remember all those comments” which were not “wise.” Trump’s son Eric Trump dismissed the foreign secretary’s takes on Trump as “nonsense clickbait” and “dumb crap.”

“Donald Trump is an unusual politician and his, at times, emotive rhetoric and political choices attracted responses from other political leaders that were quite unusual in diplomatic terms,” said Sophia Gaston, the head of foreign policy and U.K. resilience at the Policy Exchange think tank. “Words really do matter when it comes to politics, because those personal relationships can be really important.”

Gaston, however, argued the language wouldn’t have a lasting impact on Britain’s relationship with the U.S. “David Lammy and his team have made really significant inroads into the wider Trump ecosystem,” she said.

“Ultimately, their success in interacting with a Trump administration will be determined by their policy positions and how much alignment they feel there is with their core objectives.”

No wonder U.K. Labour officials have spent recent months scrambling to build bridges with the Trump camp. Plans to appoint a new U.K. Ambassador to Washington have been put on ice pending the outcome of the November 5 election.

If Trump wins, Britain will be hoping the forgiveness he has shown toward his vice-presidential pick Vance — who once branded the Republican nominee a “moral disaster” who could be “America’s Hitler” — will be extended to its own team of top diplomats.

A U.K. Foreign Office spokesperson said: “The U.K.-U.S. relationship is special, built on a foundation of our deep security, military and intelligence links, as well as our unique cultural and people-to-people ties.”

“We look forward to working closely with whoever is elected the next U.S. president.”