Trump officials risk “lunacy” if they choose to support the fragmentation of Europe, Ambassador Anthony Gardner said in an unusually frank exit discussion with reporters. Gardner is an ally of President Obama who has been forced to resign, along with all other political ambassadorial appointees, on Jan. 20.
Gardner said that the E.U. remains more robust than is usually perceived in the United States. But he said he fears that a Euroskeptic Trump administration would harm U.S. and European interests if it continued to embrace anti-E.U. leaders such as Nigel Farage, a major leader of the successful British campaign to leave the E.U., known as Brexit.
In transition officials’ calls with E.U. leaders, their first question was, Gardner said, “What country is about to leave next after the U.K.?”
“For us to be the cheerleaders of Brexit and to be encouraging Brexit Mark 2, Mark 3, is the height of folly,” he said.
He declined to name which officials were involved in the discussions and said that embassy officials had not taken part.
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