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IrelandWestmacott says Trump's diplomacy leaves allies without familiar routes
LBC's Matt Frei asks Patrick Wintour and the former British ambassador how Europe should respond to an increasingly unpredictable White House.
LBC
Story of Why this story? One of the most watched videos since yesterday, with 238,087 views.
How Trump's 'foul temper' is causing global unpredictability
Things we can learn from the video
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- 0:00Rubio calls for G20 cooperation against interconnected crises affecting trade and supply chains.
- 0:48Wintour argues that Trump's unpredictable leadership makes overlapping global conflicts harder to manage.
- 4:06Westmacott says familiar diplomatic routes through deputies and Cabinet members no longer work as they once did.
- 8:27Wintour urges European governments to express principled disagreement publicly, rather than offer only private counsel.
- 10:14Westmacott identifies the midterms as important to constraining presidential foreign-policy decisions.
Diplomats used to have a familiar fallback when dealing with a difficult White House: work through experienced deputies and Cabinet officials. Sir Peter Westmacott tells LBC that those routes no longer function as they once did under Donald Trump.
That practical problem sits at the centre of Matt Frei's discussion with the former British ambassador to Washington and diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour. The upload has drawn roughly 238,000 views in its first seventeen hours.
It begins with Marco Rubio addressing a G20 meeting in Atlanta, calling for countries to confront interconnected economic and geopolitical crises together. Frei then asks whether that appeal sits comfortably with the administration's approach to Russia and Ukraine.
Wintour argues that Trump's unpredictability compounds already overlapping conflicts. He also criticises Rubio's willingness to change positions to align with the president. Westmacott's concern is how foreign governments can conduct diplomacy when, in his assessment, personal loyalty carries more weight than the established machinery of government.
Frei presses that argument with a pointed question: does the White House increasingly resemble a capricious monarchy? Westmacott agrees with the comparison and argues that those around Trump enable his behaviour. These are the guests' assessments, rather than a neutral account of the administration's motives.
The discussion eventually turns from diagnosis to response. Wintour says Britain and Europe need to voice principled disagreement publicly, rather than rely solely on quiet private advice. Westmacott places particular importance on the approaching midterms and whether they will impose constraints on the president's foreign-policy decisions.
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💡 Test your knowledge
Which US city hosts the G20 meeting shown at the start?
Rubio welcomes attendees to Atlanta, Georgia, in the opening footage.