Brits mad at Trump for tweets about this morning's terror attack

How many times in eight months has Trump’s administration pissed off the British government? There was the fiasco in March when Spicer touted Andrew Napolitano’s claim that Britain’s NSA had spied on Trump for the Obama White House. There was the incident after the Manchester terror attack when crime-scene photos apparently taken by British intelligence and shared with the U.S. somehow ended up in the New York Times. There was Trump’s war of words with London mayor Sadiq Khan, a politician sufficiently popular in the UK that Theresa May felt obliged to defend him from Trump even though they’re from different parties.

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And now there’s this. At the rate we’re going, I’m not sure that golden-carriage ride is ever going to happen.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/908645126146265090

This morning’s bomber was “in the sights of Scotland Yard”? That was news to the public. When May was asked about, she replied drily, “I never think it’s helpful for anyone to speculate on what is an ongoing investigation.” Other British pols and former pols were less politic. This guy was, until recently, May’s chief of staff:

https://twitter.com/NickJTimothy/status/908644201763688448

And this guy is a former MP from May’s own party:

“Others pointed out that any other members of a potential terror cell may have been alerted that they had been under surveillance if the president was basing his comments on a confidential security briefing,” noted Bloomberg. Journalists are peeved too:

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https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/908652463372324864

BuzzFeed asked London police for reaction to what Trump said and were told that his comments were “unhelpful” and “pure speculation.” Unhelpful, sure, but I don’t know about speculation: POTUS told reporters this morning that he had been briefed on the attack, in which case his hint that Scotland Yard knew something about the perpetrator(s) may be more than him just spitballing. If he really did spill the beans about something the British government had shared in confidence, it would be the second time in four months that intelligence from the UK had been exposed to the American public and the second time this year (at least!) that POTUS had revealed terrorism-related intelligence to people who weren’t supposed to know about it yet. At least when he allegedly blabbed about that ISIS mole’s location to the Russians it was during conversation, when a person’s apt to be more absent-minded. What’s the excuse for tweeting out something that you shouldn’t have?

Here he is addressing reporters at the White House today. Exit question per his tweets: How would the travel ban have mattered in this case? Is he suggesting visitors from the UK should receive “extreme vetting”?

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David Strom 3:20 PM | November 15, 2024
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