British ambassador to US blasts 'inept and dysfunctional Trump'

The UK ambassador to the US has sparked controversy by allegedly describing President Donald Trump and his administration as "inept" and "uniquely dysfunctional", according to leaked memos.

Ambassador Kim Darroch reportedly said Trump's presidency could "crash and burn" and "end in disgrace", in secret cables and briefing notes sent to the UK government from Washington seen by the Mail newspaper.

"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," Darroch allegedly wrote in one dispatch.

Darroch also described during a state visit to Britain just last month, as "insecure" and "incompetent".

Trump and his team had been "dazzled" by the visit to the UK - where he was received by Queen Elizabeth II - but warned the UK might not remain "flavour of the month" because "this is still the land of America First".

He reportedly wrote that the "vicious infighting and chaos" inside the White House was "mostly true".

Darroch is one of the UK's most respected diplomats whose posting in Washington DC began in January 2016, before Trump won the presidency.

The Mail on Sunday said the memos, likely leaked by someone within the UK's civil service, cover a period beginning in 2017.

One report from 22 June saw Darroch criticise Trump's fraught foreign policy on Iran, which has prompted fears in global capitals of a military conflict, as "incoherent" and "chaotic".

He allegedly said Trump's assertion that he called off retaliatory missile strikes against the Iranian regime after a US drone was shot down because it risked killing 150 Iranians, "doesn't stand up".

"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," Darroch reportedly stated. Trump is preparing to run for election again next year for a second term as president.

The UK's Foreign Office did not deny the veracity of the memos.

"The British public would expect our ambassadors to provide ministers with an honest, unvarnished assessment of the politics in their country," a spokeswoman said.

"Their views are not necessarily the views of ministers or indeed the government," she added, noting "we pay them to be candid".

"Our team in Washington have strong relations with the White House and no doubt that these will withstand such mischievous behaviour," the spokeswoman said of the potential fallout from the leak.