Trump has waded into today’s constitutional debate via his Twitter feed…
Would be very hard for Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of Britain’s Labour Party, to seek a no-confidence vote against New Prime Minister Boris Johnson, especially in light of the fact that Boris is exactly what the U.K. has been looking for, & will prove to be “a great one!” Love U.K.
Donald Trump has taken to fighting back against “liberal paper straws” while fundraising for his re-election bid by selling his own branded all-American plastic straws. The straws that sell for $15 per pack of ten are 9″ long, laser engraved, and made in the USA. He’s reportedly raised almost $500,000 selling them already…
“Liberal paper straws don’t work. STAND WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP and buy your pack of recyclable straws today.”
Congratulations to Boris Johnson on becoming the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He will be great!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2019
This will really get the Remainiacs going…
Aussie PM Scott Morrison is full of praise:
He has a reputation for getting things done and making things happen. I wish him all the best as he charts the way forward for the UK. We have a great relationship with the UK and it will remain so with Boris. 🇦🇺 🇬🇧
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) July 23, 2019
Meanwhile Michel Barnier is the senior EU figure to send his congratulations, optimistically tweeting that Boris can now “facilitate the ratification” of May’s failed Withdrawal Agreement. He may be in for a nasty shock…
We look forward to working constructively w/ PM @BorisJohnson when he takes office, to facilitate the ratification of the Withdrawal Agreement and achieve an orderly #Brexit. We are ready also to rework the agreed Declaration on a new partnership in line with #EUCO guidelines.
— Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) July 23, 2019
Boris has also had a congratulatory message of sorts reminding him of another crisis he’s inheriting from May from the Iranian foreign minister. Who surprisingly has twice as many Twitter followers as him…
The May govt’s seizure of Iranian oil at behest of US is piracy, pure & simple.
I congratulate my former counterpart, @BorisJohnson on becoming UK PM.
Iran does not seek confrontation. But we have 1500 miles of Persian Gulf coastline.These are our waters & we will protect them pic.twitter.com/svEqmEHQBM
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) July 23, 2019
The UK’s ambassador to the US Kim Darroch has resigned after the Mail on Sunday’s explosive leaks. Darroch’s position had clearly become untenable after the Trump administration froze him out and Trump himself launched a barrage of tweets attacking him directly. Darroch says:
“Although my posting is not due to end until the end of this year, I believe in the current circumstances the responsible course is to allow the appointment of a new ambassador.”
Particularly with Brexit going on, the realpolitik is that the UK needs an ambassador who can deal with the uniquely unpredictable and temperamental President of the US, not just an FCO box-ticker and lifelong Europhile. The manner in which Darroch was removed was certainly undignified. That doesn’t mean there aren’t potential replacements out there who would actually be much more suitable for the job…
Read Darroch’s resignation letter in full below:
It’s popcorn time again as Trump continues to rip up every page of the diplomatic rulebook in response to the Kim Darroch leaks:
The wacky Ambassador that the U.K. foisted upon the United States is not someone we are thrilled with, a very stupid guy. 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…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2019
….and they are both only getting bigger, better and stronger…..Thank you, Mr. President!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2019
Say what you really think, Donald!
The NHS has been under Tory management for most of its life. At almost every election Labour claim that the NHS is under threat from “Tory Cuts”, yet the budget increases as ever. The new twist in their latest campaign is that Trump will be buying the NHS.
Once it was explained to Trump what the NHS was he excluded it from a trade deal, saying “But I don’t see [the NHS] as being, that’s something that I would not consider part of trade. That’s not trade.” Not that the Labour Party will interrupt decades of lying slogans about the future of the NHS…
UPDATE: Here’s US Ambassador Woody Johnson rubbishing the claims that the US wants to privatise the NHS just last week at the CPS’ Thatcher Conference:
Labour is trying to claim that the NHS will be sold to US corporations if a free trade deal is done with the US. It won’t and Trump has made clear that it is not even on the agenda. The NHS has been in Tory hands for most of it’s 70 year life. Spending on the NHS has risen ahead of inflation. “Save the NHS” is a tried and tested line from Labour, updated for Brexit. Still bollocks.
Trump knows Boris, he knows Jeremy Hunt, he says he doesn’t know Michael Gove despite being interviewed by him in 2017…
Last night President Trump rang Boris Johnson to offer a meeting during his ‘executive time’ today. The former London Mayor had to turn it down in due to a Parliamentary Hustings organised by the One Nation Group of Tory MPs to which he is committed. A source close to Boris told Guido that the conversation lasted for twenty minutes, and Trump understood that Boris couldn’t pull out of his hustings. Guido understands that he said he “looked forward to catching up at a later date”… This of course means there is definitely a diary gap for Nigel Farage…
Simon Schama on the Donald…
“He’s not a fascist, he’s not a monster, he’s an egomaniac.”
Before he has even got off the airplane, the US President has already done his best to create a diplomatic incident. Nothing like making an entrance…
….Kahn reminds me very much of our very dumb and incompetent Mayor of NYC, de Blasio, who has also done a terrible job – only half his height. In any event, I look forward to being a great friend to the United Kingdom, and am looking very much forward to my visit. Landing now!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 3, 2019
Typically subtle diplomacy four days before his state visit…
The Daily Show has dug up an old clip of Donald Trump giving a commencement address to graduating students at Wagner College in Staten Island, N.Y. In it he gives some advice that potential migrants might find useful…
“If there’s a concrete wall in front of you, go through it. Go over it. Go around it. But get to the other side of that wall.”
The EU has been getting a taste of its own medicine in Washington DC, with EU diplomats being frozen out of swanky gatherings after Donald Trump downgraded the EU delegation’s diplomatic status from “member state” to “international organisation”. The EU’s fantasies of being a superstate brought crashing back down to reality…
Best of all, according to DW the US State Department didn’t even bother informing the EU about the demotion, leaving them to work it out for themselves as their ‘ambassador’ gradually stopped receiving invitations to parties. The EU finally clicked after he was snubbed at the state funeral for George H. W. Bush, only being called to pay respects dead last after 150 other foreign diplomats had already had their turn. A US official later said they “forgot” to tell them. Try not to shed a tear…
A US Army veteran has set up an apparently entirely serious ‘GoFundMe‘ page to help fund the construction of Trump’s promised wall along the southern US border. In just five days, the campaign has already raised well over $14 million. Still no sign of Mexico paying for it…
This comes as the US Government shut down in the early hours of this morning, as Trump has refused to sign off any federal funding package passed by Congress that does not include $5 billion for his promised wall.
The crowdfund page points to previous private donations for US Government construction and says that
“If the 63 million people who voted for Trump each pledge $80, we can build the wall. That equates to roughly 5 Billion Dollars, even if we get half, that’s half the wall.”
They are currently 0.3% of the way there…
UPDATE: A rival crowdfund page has raised over $100,000 to buy ladders for migrants to climb over the wall.
With America going to vote in the midterm elections today, Guido thought he would bring you a little flavour flavor of the campaign across the pond. These were the scenes at a Trump rally last night after a woman in the crowd fainted – his enraptured supporters broke into a spontaneous rendition of Amazing Grace as Trump himself nodded along in approval. “Beautiful”…
It’s hard to imagine anything like this taking place in the UK. Unless it’s the Red Flag at Labour Party Conference, that is…
After Guido revealed that Sadiq’s top team had conspired to overrule the GLA’s original decision not to allow the Trump baby blimp to fly, Sadiq was subjected to a grilling by GLA Conservative Leader Gareth Bacon over what he really knew about the plot.
Despite emails released through an FoI showing that several of his close advisers were key movers in the plot to “lean on” officials to make them reverse their decision, Sadiq continued to insist that he had played no part in the decision, nor had any knowledge of it whatsoever. Guido somehow doubts that his denial will be enough to convince Piers Morgan…
It would raise serious questions about Sadiq’s authority if his inner circle at City Hall, including his Director of Communications, Patrick Hennessy, and a number of his direct political appointees, had genuinely taken action on such a high-profile issue without even making their boss aware of it. Is that really credible? As Bacon quips: “Are you involved in any decision making at City Hall, Mr Mayor?”
Entries in the comments…
President Trump boarded Air Force One in Minneapolis yesterday with sheets of toilet paper stuck to his shoe. Guido expects an adviser might get dumped too after this sticky situation…[…] Read the rest
Boris as Hulk…
‘Banner might be bound in manacles, but when provoked he would explode out of them. Hulk always escaped, no matter how tightly bound in he seemed to be – and that is the case for this country. We will come out on October 31 and we will get it done.’
