Inquiry to probe leak of UK ambassador’s memos on ‘inept’ Trump White House

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"1">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>A formal inquiry will take place into the leak of sensitive diplomatic memos detailing the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;uniquely dysfunctional” and &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;inept” White House under Donald Trump&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The documents detail UK ambassador to the US Kim Darroch’s assessments of the Trump administration from 2017 to the present – and could prove highly embarrassing for the UK Foreign Office&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Cabinet minister David Gauke condemned the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;disgraceful” leak&comma; which will now be the subject of a Civil Service inquiry in Britain&comma; and said ambassadors should feel able to &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;tell the truth as they see it”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A Foreign Office spokesman said&colon; <em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;A formal leak investigation has now been initiated&period;”<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Officials insisted the relationship with the White House could withstand the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;mischievous behaviour” of the leak and defended Mr Darroch’s candid style&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The diplomatic memos&comma; obtained by the Mail on Sunday&comma; suggest that in order to communicate with the president &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;you need to make your points simple&comma; even blunt”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the cache of documents&comma; Mr Darroch gives a scathing assessment of the White House&colon; <em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We don’t really believe this administration is going to become substantially more normal&semi; less dysfunctional&semi; less unpredictable&semi; less faction riven&semi; less diplomatically clumsy and inept&period;”<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He questioned whether the White House &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;will ever look competent”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Following Mr Trump’s state visit to the UK in June&comma; Mr Darroch warned that although the president had been &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;dazzled” by the pomp and ceremony of the trip&comma; his administration would remain self-interested and &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;this is still the land of America First”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In one of the most recent documents&comma; Mr Darroch refers to &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;incoherent&comma; chaotic” US policy on Iran and questions Mr Trump’s publicly stated reason for calling off a retaliatory air strike against Tehran following the downing of an American drone&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The US and Iran have been at the brink of armed conflict over tensions in the Gulf&comma; and Mr Trump stated that he called off a planned air strike with minutes to spare because of the potentially high number of casualties&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But Mr Darroch said that the explanation &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;doesn’t stand up”&comma; and suggested it may have been motivated by Mr Trump’s focus on the 2020 re-election campaign and his previous promises not to involve the US in foreign conflicts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It’s more likely that he was never fully on board and that he was worried about how this apparent reversal of his 2016 campaign promises would look come 2020&comma;”<&sol;em> Mr Darroch said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He said it was &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;unlikely that US policy on Iran is going to become more coherent any time soon” as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;this is a divided administration”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In a particularly sensitive leak&comma; a 2017 letter to the National Security Adviser Mark Sedwill – sent 150 days into the Trump administration – laid bare the trouble in the White House&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Media reports of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;vicious infighting and chaos” were &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;mostly true” despite the president’s attempts to brush them off&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Referring to the early allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia&comma; the memo said &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the worst cannot be ruled out”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A lengthy investigation by Robert Mueller published earlier this year cleared the Trump team of the collusion allegations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Justice Secretary Mr Gauke said&colon; <em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I think it’s very important that ambassadors give honest&comma; unvarnished advice to their country&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;And it is disgraceful that it’s been leaked&period;”<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Defending Mr Darroch&comma; Mr Gauke told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show&colon; <em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I think ambassadors need to be able to make their honest assessment of the situation and report back to London&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;And that is what he’s done&period;”<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed28500215b">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; 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