Karen Pierce named new UK ambassador to US
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Britain has named Karen Pierce as its new ambassador to the US, the first woman to hold the post in Washington – replacing a veteran diplomat who incurred President Trump’s wrath for calling his administration “dysfunctional” and “inept” in a series of leaked diplomatic cables to London.
The appointment of Pierce, 60, currently the UK’s ambassador to the United Nations, comes as Britain embarks on critical efforts to strike a trade deal with the US following its departure from the European Union.
“It is a time of huge opportunity for the friendship between the UK and US and I am delighted that Karen Pierce will take forward this exciting new chapter in our relationship,” Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Friday.
Trump expressed outrage when Kim Darroch’s unfiltered views on the US administration appeared in leaked diplomatic documents that were published in Britain’s Mail on Sunday newspaper.
In the documents, he called Team Trump’s policy toward Iran “incoherent,” said the president might be indebted to “dodgy Russians” and raised doubts about whether the White House “will ever look competent.”
“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,” one missive said.
The president responded in a series of tweets, including one in which he wrote: “The wacky Ambassador that the U.K. foisted upon the United States is not someone we are thrilled with, a very stupid guy.”
Darroch resigned in July.
With Post wires
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