Daniel DePetris

Is Kim Darroch now the most popular man in Washington?

Kim Darroch may no longer be Britain’s top man in Washington DC, but that doesn’t mean he has lost friends in the U.S. capital. Indeed, if anything, the abrupt end of Darroch’s long career has only earned him more goodwill.  

The outgoing ambassador is now one of the most popular men in Washington after his high-profile falling-out with Donald Trump. And the U.S. foreign policy establishment has rallied around him like a mother bear rallies around her cub—with love and affection. Ex-diplomats and foreign policy officials, from former U.S. State Department veteran Richard Haass to former French Ambassador Gerard Areud have come out in recent days defending Darroch as a man who was punished for simply doing his job and reporting back to his superiors back home. He provided his unvarnished advice to the foreign ministry as he was expected to do when he was appointed for the position. Darroch was a victim of the times, caught between a Washington changed by Trump and a London whose politics have become so dirty they make American politics look like child’s play.

To the Washington Post editorial board, Darroch’s resignation was proof that what the ambassador wrote in his cables was completely accurate.

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Daniel DePetris

Daniel DePetris is a fellow at Defense Priorities, a syndicated foreign affairs columnist at the Chicago Tribune and a foreign affairs writer for Newsweek.

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