Leaked diplomatic cables published Sunday in a British newspaper reveal that Britain's ambassador to the United States described President Donald Trump's administration as "clumsy and inept" while grappling with international problems.
The memos containing highly negative comments from Ambassador Kim Darroch provided a rare candid look at how a senior British diplomat views the government of Britain's closest and most important ally.
"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," Darroch wrote in one of the documents published in the Mail on Sunday newspaper.
The United States and the U.K. enjoy what each describe as a "special relationship" that has held strong since World War II. But the ambassador's assessment indicated deep unease with Trump's foreign policies, which have broken with Britain's on key issues such as climate change and preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Britain's Foreign Office did not challenge the authenticity of the leaked documents, which covered the period of 2017 to the present. It called the leak "mischievous behavior" and said the public expects diplomats to provide honest assessments of the politics in the countries where they are posted.
The Foreign Office said the leaks would not harm the productive relationship between the British government and the Trump White House. A formal investigation of the leak may be set in motion in the coming days.
It is customary for senior British diplomats posted overseas to file straightforward memos to senior ministers and security services analysts back home so that political trends and possible threats to British interests can be gauged, but it is unusual for a large number of them to be made public.
Justice Secretary David Gauke called the leak "disgraceful" but said Britain "should expect our ambassadors to tell the truth, as they see it." The memos also characterized Trump's policy on Iran as "incoherent, chaotic."