Mandelson seeks to distance himself from past ‘childish’ comments about Trump
The Labour grandee is poised to take over from Dame Karen Pierce as the UK’s top diplomat in Washington.
Incoming British ambassador to the US Lord Peter Mandelson has said his past comments about Donald Trump were “childish”.
The Labour grandee called Mr Trump a “danger to the world” and “little short of a white nationalist and racist” several years ago.
Now poised to take over from Dame Karen Pierce as the UK’s top diplomat in Washington, Lord Mandelson told the New York Times he regretted his choice of words in past comments about the US president.
The words I used about the president were childish and wrong
“In 2019, I was a bit irate,” Lord Mandelson said in an interview.
“But nonetheless, the words I used about the president were childish and wrong.”
But he said he stood by his “intellectual argument” on tariffs, which he outlined in an op-ed piece in 2018 arguing against Mr Trump’s trade policy and calling him a “bully and a mercantilist”.
Lord Mandelson has sought to play down past comments about Mr Trump since Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer appointed him in December.
He praised Mr Trump as a “nice person” and a “fair-minded person” who could become “one of the most consequential American presidents I have known in my adult life” in an interview with Fox News last week.
The Government is attempting to build bridges with the Trump administration and exempt British goods from the global tariffs the new president has threatened to impose.