LONDON — He may have once called Donald Trump a “tyrant in a toupee” but Britain’s top diplomat David Lammy was in full love-bombing mode Monday morning as the world awaits Trump’s inauguration as U.S. president.
British Foreign Secretary Lammy — who lobbed multiple rhetorical hand grenades at Trump during his first term but now finds himself in a key U.K. government job — told BBC Radio 4 that he’d warmed to the president-elect in a face-to-face meeting last year.
“The Donald Trump I met was a man who had incredible grace, generosity, very keen to be a good host, very funny, very friendly, very warm about the U.K., our royal family, Scotland,” Lammy said of the incoming Republican.
While an MP in opposition, Lammy had branded the Republican a “tyrant in a toupee,” a “serial liar and a cheat,” “deluded, dishonest, xenophobic, narcissistic” — and “no friend of Britain.”
Lammy has since distanced himself from those comments and talked up a friendship with incoming Vice President JD Vance, as well as a host of areas on which the U.K. and U.S. have been historic partners.
Lammy said after Labour’s July election victory in the U.K.: “You are going to struggle to find any politician who didn’t have things to say about Donald Trump back in the day.”
Lammy’s center-left boss, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, also laid it on thick Monday morning, sending his “warmest congratulations” to Trump and talking up the next U.S. commander-in-chief’s “long-standing affection and historical ties to the United Kingdom.”
“We will continue to build upon the unshakeable foundations of our historic alliance as we tackle together the global challenges we face and take our partnership to the next level focused on shared opportunities ahead for growth,” said Starmer — who has publicly feuded with Trump donor and government efficiency pick Elon Musk — in an overnight statement.
As is custom, Britain’s outgoing Ambassador to Washington Karen Pierce is the U.K. government’s sole representative at Trump’s inauguration Monday.
But a host of Brits from the right of politics are in town to watch the action unfold. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, Conservative Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel, former Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, and Conservative MP Suella Braverman will all be in Washington for the inauguration.
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