The grand opening of the new U.S. Embassy in London, a towering, translucent cube along the Thames, began operations Tuesday with decidedly little fanfare, the latest casualty of Donald Trump’s souring relationship with his British counterparts. Dramatically enveloped in undulating plastic ribbons and sequestered from the street by a 30-meter blast zone in the formerly industrial, now aggressively upscale, neighborhood of Nine Elms, the building was meant to be a billion-dollar emblem of the historical special relationship between America and the United Kingdom. Or so thought Boris Johnson, Britain’s habitually inept foreign secretary. Striding around the site in December, Johnson was flush with enthusiasm. “We are looking forward to welcoming the president when he comes over here,” he said, presumably relishing the prospect of securing a post-Brexit trade deal while perambulating along the embassy’s moat—the first to be dredged in London for centuries. “I think he will be very impressed with this building and the people who occupy it.”

Indeed, there is something distinctly Trumpian in the heavily fortified outpost, with its star-spangled widows, internal gardens, and cavernous lobby. The neighborhood, too, is a real-estate developer’s dream. The embassy is the glittering jewel in a wider, £15 billion regeneration project, which, over the last few years, has transformed the previously shabby environs south of the river into a series of gaudy apartment blocks for high-net-worth individuals. Versace has designed one of the towers and, later this year, developers are planning on wedging a glass-bottomed pool between two others. Add some gilt plating, and it could be a Trump Tower complex.

In the Trump era, of course, there there are no diplomatic relationships invulnerable to a presidential outburst. On January 11, Trump declared on Twitter that he was neither impressed with the building, nor would he be greeting its new occupants. “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. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!”

As has been widely reported, the facts behind Trump’s reasoning are characteristically hazy. It was President George W. Bush, not Barack Obama, who decided to sell the old embassy in Mayfair’s Grosvenor Square, which a group of Qataris are now planning to develop into a luxury hotel. Although, in truth, the decision wasn’t entirely the Bush administration’s either. The U.S. never owned the building, but loaned it from the Duke of Westminster. Beyond the hindrance of protracted negotiations with the Grosvenor estate, which owns swathes of the surrounding streets, the fundamental problem with the old embassy was that its “finest,” very central location, also posed a grave terror threat. As security was upgraded, and the storied square became littered with bollards, annoyed locals began to form a well-heeled resistance force. Russian Countess Anca Vidaeff, who lived across from the embassy’s side entrance, once staged a three-day hunger strike, while a disgruntled syndicate of neighbors took out newspaper ads in protest.

None of which had anything to do with Trump’s apparent aversion to London, or sudden distaste for ribbon-cutting duties. “We all know the reason why Donald Trump has pulled out of opening the new American Embassy,” Marsha de Cordova, the M.P. for Battersea, where the new embassy is located, told me. “It’s because he is scared of the reception he will get here in London. To make excuses about the new location is actually quite embarrassing, given that it’s 15 minutes from Parliament.”