President Donald Trump's tweets are his latest attack on British Ambassador Kim Darroch, whom the president called "a very stupid guy." | Alex Wong/Getty Images White House Trump rails against U.K. ambassador, calling him a 'pompous fool'

President Donald Trump resumed his verbal assault on the United Kingdom’s ambassador to Washington on Tuesday, ridiculing the envoy as a “pompous fool” before drawing an across-the-pond rebuke from the British foreign secretary.

“The wacky Ambassador that the U.K. foisted upon the United States is not someone we are thrilled with, a very stupid guy,” Trump wrote online , after threatening the day before to terminate the administration’s diplomatic relationship with him.


“He should speak to his country, and Prime Minister May, about their failed Brexit negotiation, and not be upset with my criticism of how badly it was … handled,” Trump continued.

The tweets are the latest broadside by the president against Ambassador Kim Darroch, who described Trump and his White House in stark, unflattering terms in various leaked cables to London dating as far back as 2017, according to the British tabloid Daily Mail .

“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 reportedly wrote in one of the confidential memos.

Trump on Tuesday also leveled more insults at British Prime Minister Theresa May for her response to the Brexit political crisis, despite having alternately criticized and praised in recent months May’s handling of the U.K.’s planned withdrawal from the European Union.

“I told @theresa_may how to do that deal, but she went her own foolish way-was unable to get it done. A disaster!” Trump tweeted.

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“I don’t know the Ambassador but have been told he is a pompous fool,” he wrote online . “Tell him the USA now has the best Economy & Military anywhere in the World, by far … and they are both only getting bigger, better and stronger.....Thank you, Mr. President!”

The post provoked a sharp retort from Jeremy Hunt, the British foreign secretary, who is one of two remaining candidates to lead the Conservative Party and become Britain's next prime minister. The other contender is former Foreign Secretary and London Mayor Boris Johnson, for whom Trump has expressed support.

"@realDonaldTrump friends speak frankly so I will: these comments are disrespectful and wrong to our Prime Minister and my country. Your diplomats give their private opinions to @SecPompeo and so do ours!" tweeted Hunt.

"You said the UK/US alliance was the greatest in history and I agree ... but allies need to treat each other with respect as @theresa_may has always done with you," Hunt continued. "Ambassadors are appointed by the UK government and if I become PM our Ambassador stays."

Trump claimed Monday on Twitter that while he does “not know the Ambassador,” Darroch “is not liked or well … thought of within the U.S.,” adding : “We will no longer deal with him.”

Speaking to reporters in New Jersey on Sunday, Trump said Darroch “has not served the U.K. well” and asserted that his administration’s officials are “not big fans of that man.”

May’s spokesman said Monday that Downing Street had contacted the Trump administration, “setting out our view that we believe the leak is unacceptable” and calling the episode “a matter of regret,” Reuters reported.

Asked Monday whether it was interpreting Trump’s tweet as declaring Darroch persona non grata — the term used in diplomatic circles when a country wants to kick out a foreign official or prevent him or her from entering — the State Department referred POLITICO to the White House. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

