Investigation lunched into leaked memos calling Trump ‘insecure’ and ‘inept’

The Foreign Office says it has launched a formal investigation into the leak.

The UK government is investigating who leaked the diplomatic memos which revealed Britain’s ambassador to the US called Donald Trump ‘inept’, ‘insecure’ and ‘incompetent’.

Sir Kim Darroch questioned in one memo if the Trump administration ‘will ever look competent’ and expressed concerns over ‘vicious infighting’ in the White House.

The Foreign Office spokesperson has said a ‘formal leak investigation’ will now be carried out to find out who was responsible.

The documents obtained by the Mail On Sunday detail Sir Kim’s scathing assessments of the Trump administration since 2017.

He predicted Trump’s presidency would ‘crash and burn’ after a downward spiral leading to ‘disgrace and downfall’.

In an assessment of the US government, he said: ‘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’.

Sir Kim slammed Trump’s ‘incoherent and chaotic policy on Iran’ and questioned the true motive for calling off a retaliatory airstrike against Tehran after the shooting down of a US drone.

The ambassador said it was unlikely the President cancelled the airstrike at the last minute due to the potentially high number of casualties.

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He suggested it had more to do with Trump’s focus on his 2020 re-election campaign and his previous promises to keep the US out of foreign conflicts.

Sir Kim said ‘the worst cannot be ruled out’ on allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

He is reported to have said Trump could have become ‘indebted to dodgy Russians’ while serving as president.

This comes despite an investigation by Robert Mueller published earlier this year that cleared the Trump team of the collusion claims.

He also said that despite being ‘dazzled’ by the pomp and ceremony of his recent state visit to the UK, Trump will still remain ‘self interested’ and the US will still be ‘land of America first’.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘The British public would expect our ambassadors to provide ministers with an honest, unvarnished assessment of the politics in their country.

‘Their views are not necessarily the views of ministers or indeed the government.

‘But we pay them to be candid. Just as the US ambassador here will send back his reading of Westminster politics and personalities.

‘Our team in Washington have strong relations with the White House and no doubt these will withstand such mischievous behaviour.’