September 6, 2020

"Boris Johnson privately told US diplomats that Donald Trump was 'making America great again'..."

"... according to a cache of official notes taken during high-level UK-US meetings whose details have leaked to The Telegraph. The Prime Minister is quoted telling the US ambassador to Britain in August 2017, when he was foreign secretary, that Mr Trump was doing 'fantastic stuff' on foreign policy issues like China, Syria and North Korea. Other records show Mr Johnson claimed the US president was becoming 'increasingly popular' in Britain in 2017 and spoke warmly about how under his leadership America was 'back and engaged in the world.'"

The Telegraph reports.

20 comments:

rehajm said...

They tell the untold story...same lots of other places, too

Wince said...

Boris Johnson privately told US diplomats that Donald Trump was 'making America great again'...

Is that presumptively a bad thing?

traditionalguy said...

Of course. Boris lives in Great Britain where he is not under the propaganda blanket of the MSM’s alternate reality narratives 24/7. Boris simply sees and states the truth forbidden in America.

Birkel said...

Where are all the fopdoodles?

Temujin said...

It's almost as if a leak accidentally leaked out. Everyone knows that nothing positive about Trump is supposed to 'leak' out. It is quashed, spiked, filed, deleted, or burned. But not leaked. One cannot allow positive leaks about this man.

This is a journalistic disgrace. WaPo would never have allowed such a thing. At least not without running it by a Clinton beforehand.

Oso Negro said...

The comments on that should be a laugh riot.

Big Mike said...

Is that presumptively a bad thing?

@Wince, give the US news media a couple more hours to figure out how to spin it negatively.

Sebastian said...

"a cache of official notes"

I'll take that as confirmation.

Plus the Donald has been doing fantastic stuff.

If he weren't GOP, most Dems would be cheering. OK, so Trump despises the UN and ignores the Palestinians. But from a traditional sorta-lefty point of view, what's not to like? Lefties didn't want Nafta. They opposed crazy wars. They didn't want saber-rattling against North Korea. They didn't like what China did to US workers. Iran never was a lefty thing except that they had to fall in line behind Barry. Deals with Israel and in the Balkans--better for those regions, fewer headaches for us. So?

Michael K said...

If only Boris was doing better in Britain.

Has any one seen the arrest of a guy on the Underground for not wearing a mask ?

Dalrymple explains it.

Admittedly, corruption is a strange kind of virtue: but so is honesty in pursuit of useless or harmful ends. Corruption is generally held to be a vice, and viewed in the abstract, it is. But bad behavior can sometimes have good effects, and good behavior bad effects.

Where administration is light and bureaucracy small, bureaucratic honesty is an incomparable virtue; but where these are heavy and large, as in all modern European states, Britain and Italy not least among them, they burden and obstruct the inventive and energetic. Where bureaucrats are honest, no one can cut through their Laocoönian coils: their procedures, no matter how onerous, antiquated, or bloody-minded, must be endured patiently. Such bureaucrats can

neither be hurried in their deliberations nor made to see common sense. Indeed, the very absurdity or pedantry of these deliberations is for them the guarantee of their own fair-mindedness, impartiality, and disinterest. To treat all people with equal contempt and indifference is the bureaucrat’s idea of equity.


tcrosse said...

The Telegraph has a follow-up story, the drift of which is that Boris cannot rely on merely flattering Trump. Turning flattery into foreign policy wins is easier said than done.

iowan2 said...

President Trump is a great President, according to named sources.

Un-named sources say President Trump has no respect for military personnel.

I wonder which statement is more believable.

clint said...

Temujin said... "It's almost as if a leak accidentally leaked out. Everyone knows that nothing positive about Trump is supposed to 'leak' out."

It's a British paper. The point isn't to say nice things about Trump, it's supposed to tarnish Boris Johnson.

Joe Smith said...

Wait, so Trump is telling the Germans to pay their share and isn't kissing Iranian ass like...just give me a second...I know his name...and he had a Vice President too. It's almost there...

tcrosse said...

In the context of British politics, the Telegraph is a Tory paper, i.e. Conservative. During the most recent general election they were in the tank for Boris.

n.n said...

Trump has made significant progress. Notably requalifying the progress made by his predecessor on foreign, domestic, economic, and social issues to good effect, despite the resistance, witch hunts, warlock trials, protests founded on false premises, social contagion, and Her Choice (i.e. viral contagion).

Sam L. said...

The HORROR!! The horror...for the Dems. Heh, heh, heh.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

I don't know if it were the same Dalrymple article, but I read one where his point came down to this:

In Italy you must pay a bribe to get your phone installed. But your phone will be installed.

In England the civil servant to whom you report the black mold in your council house will never ask you for a bribe. But the mold will never be fixed.

Michael K said...

Churchy, Same Article.

Narayanan said...

Michael K said...
Churchy, Same Article. ...
---------===========
from the article ....
Where bureaucrats are honest, no one can cut through their Laocoönian coils: their procedures, no matter how onerous, antiquated, or bloody-minded, must be endured patiently. Such bureaucrats can neither be hurried in their deliberations nor made to see common sense. Indeed, the very absurdity or pedantry of these deliberations is for them the guarantee of their own fair-mindedness, impartiality, and disinterest. To treat all people with equal contempt and indifference is the bureaucrat’s idea of equity.
....

to me this sounds exactly = cruel neutrality

what do you think?

Narayanan said...

https://www.city-journal.org/html/uses-corruption-12180.html
The Uses of Corruption Theodore Dalrymple Summer 2001

what a difference :
insightful analysis laying out the context for contrast vs muddled thinking "In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Action"