As he trampled roughshod over diplomatic ties with some of the United States’ closest allies in the first weeks of his presidency, it appeared that Donald Trump could likewise sabotage the “special relationship” that has existed between the U.S. and Britain since the 1940s. Following the White House’s implementation of its Muslim travel ban, the Times of London reported that Buckingham Palace was not jazzed about the optics of a state visit from Trump. The situation deteriorated when Trump instigated a Twitter feud with London Mayor Sadiq Khan, raising hackles abroad and delaying his visit indefinitely. And on Thursday night, the president finally arrived at a painfully transparent excuse to skip a trip to a country where he is largely reviled.

“Reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for ‘peanuts,’ only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal,“ Trump wrote on Twitter, incorrectly crediting the decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Barack Obama, despite the fact that it was made under George W. Bush for security reasons.

British lawmakers, however, were quick to offer their own reasons for Trump’s choice to forgo the trip to London. “President Trump got the message from the many Londoners who love and admire America and Americans, but find his policies and action the polar opposite of our city’s values,” Khan said in a statement, adding that his visit would “without doubt have been met with mass peaceful protests” and faulting Prime Minister Theresa May for extending an invitation in the first place. Other Brits echoed the sentiment. “You finally got the message that you’d be met by millions of us out on the streets protesting,” Labour Party lawmaker David Lammy wrote on Twitter, while a former Labour leader dismissed Trump’s proffered reason, writing, “Nope it’s because nobody wanted you to come.”

But Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson came to Trump’s defense, taking a swipe at Khan and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. “The U.S. is the biggest single investor in the U.K.—yet Khan & Corbyn seem determined to put this crucial relationship at risk,” Johnson wrote on Twitter. “We will not allow U.S.-U.K. relations to be endangered by some puffed up pompous popinjay in City Hall.”

May has yet to weigh in on Trump’s announcement, yet even she has been set in public opposition to the president, calling his decision to re-tweet videos by the far-right group Britain First “the wrong thing to do” and releasing a rare statement rebuking the president. Barring a state visit, perhaps Trump will be able to track her down during his upcoming visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos.