President Donald Trump on Friday backtracked on his criticisms of the UK's ambassador to the US after learning that the ambassador, Kim Darroch, had compared him to Arnold Schwarzenegger in "The Terminator."

The president told reporters on Friday that Darroch had said some "very good things about me."

Darroch resigned this week after Trump sent a series of tweets labeling him "stupid" and "whacky" and insisting he wouldn't work with him in the future. The president's outburst was in response to leaked cables describing Darroch's analysis of the Trump administration.

"I wish the British ambassador well," Trump said on Friday.

Visit Business Insider's home page for more stories.

President Donald Trump appears to have made a dramatic change to his opinion about the UK's ambassador to the US after reading a tweet revealing that the now-outgoing diplomat had compared the president to Arnold Schwarzenegger in "The Terminator."

The ambassador, Kim Darroch, resigned earlier this week after some of his confidential comments about the president were leaked to the press.

In the memos, which were leaked to the Mail on Sunday newspaper, Darroch described Trump's White House as "dysfunctional," "inept," and "incompetent."

The leak led to a series of tweets from Trump in which he attacked Darroch as "stupid" and "whacky" and called Prime Minister Theresa May's handling of Brexit a "mess."

Darroch quit, saying it had become "impossible" for him to continue in the job.

Following Darroch's resignation, however, Trump came across a tweet from Sen. Lindsey Graham that contained another excerpt from the leaks in which the UK's ambassador compared Trump to the Terminator cyborg character and suggested that Trump could win a second term in office.

"Trump may emerge from the flames, battered but intact, like Schwarzenegger in the final scenes of the Terminator," Darroch wrote on Trump's chances of a second term.

Trump on Friday said he was pleased with these "very good things" Darroch had said about him and offered the ambassador his best wishes.

"I wish the British ambassador well," he told reporters.

"Some people just told me — too bad — but they said he actually said very good things about me. He was sort of referring to other people and I guess I quoted Lindsay Graham today.

"He said some things that were pretty nice from the British ambassador. But look I wish the British ambassador well, but they've got to stop their leaking problems there just like they've got to stop them in our country."

Watch Trump wish Kim Darroch well

The row has dominated political debate this week in the UK, where the former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is the favorite to replace May as prime minister.

Johnson's refusal during a televised debate with his rival for the job, Jeremy Hunt, to say Darroch should stay in post triggered a major backlash against Johnson among his party colleagues and opponents.

Johnson was branded "contemptible" and accused of throwing Darroch "under a bus," by Conservative MPs, while the opposition Labour Party labeled Johnson a "Donald Trump patsy."