Donald Trump’s second stint as president will be like a “24/7 bar-room brawl”, according to the UK’s former ambassador to Washington.
Lord Darroch was the representative for the UK to the US between 2016 and 2019 – when Mr Trump was last in power – until cables he sent to London were leaked and showed him criticising the president.
He spoke to Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips about what Lord Mandelson could expect as ambassador to the US under the 47th president.
Lord Darroch said it was important not to take criticism and political attacks “too seriously”.
This followed a Trump campaign adviser calling Lord Mandelson a “moron”.
Lord Darroch said it was the kind of thing to be expected now – “this is what life is going to be like under Trump 2.0,” he said.
“It’s like a 24/7 bar-room brawl, you get this sort of stuff going on all the time.
“You need to have a thick skin, and you need to manage it.”
As an experienced politician, Lord Mandelson “can cope”, Lord Darroch said.
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Asked for his advice to Lord Mandelson – an architect of the New Labour project – Lord Darroch raised three points.
His first was that it is important to get out of Washington DC as the capital is a “90% Democrat city” and is not representative of the areas that voted Republican.
If the president-elect becomes unpopular in the Midwest and in the Deep South “he’s in trouble”, Lord Darroch said.
His second piece of advice was to point out that Mr Trump cares about what successful businesspeople and billionaires think of him.
The returning president will not be swayed by government officials trying to lean on his conscience, but will be swayed by rich people saying decisions might hurt the economy, he said.
Lord Darroch added it was therefore important to network and lobby them to try and influence the Oval Office.
And his final piece of advice was to “watch out for the 5am tweet storm”.
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While Twitter is now X, Mr Trump still regularly uses social media and his presence there will have a new importance once he is running the US again.
Lord Darroch said: “I can’t tell you how often I got woken up at 5am when I was in Washington, which is 11, sorry, 10am UK time, because Trump wakes up very early, and he tweets, and those tweets are completely unfiltered Donald Trump.
“And he will comment on what’s going on around the world, including all the things going on in the UK.”
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This will cause a stir in the UK, he said, adding it was important to be “firm about the British position” – including being “critical” if you think Mr Trump should not have said them.
Asked if the relationship between Mr Trump and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage might get in the way of the new ambassador, Lord Darroch said it was “just going to be part of the landscape” and Lord Mandelson should not worry too much about it.
