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Who would have believed that Washington would become anything like what it is today, politically speaking that is? No world leader or country now takes the president of the United States with the same respect or importance that was the prerogative of every US president in modern history before President Trump entered the Oval Office.
The reason that President Trump gave to postpone his visit to Great Britain flags why Washington has fallen in respect and importance to the rest of the world, particularly to its allies in the developed world. The president was invited by the British Prime Minister Theresa May a year ago to undertake a state visit to Great Britain.
The Trump's racist attitude and remarks during the presidential election had made him very unpopular to most people in Great Britain and they were unhappy with their Prime Minister for extending to him the invitation. Trump complicated the matter further by carrying to the Oval Office his war of words with the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan over the Muslim Ban that had started with the latter's election as the Mayor of London in May 2016, the first Muslim to be elected to such a high political office in Great Britain. The Mayor said his country "shouldn't be rolling the red carpet" for Trump that helped to build widespread opposition to the proposed state visit.
In June last year, President Trump called Theresa May to tell her that "if there was widespread public opposition", he would not undertake the visit at all. Number 10 Downing Street and the White House then downgraded the state visit to a working one to divert public attention and anger. They used the formal opening of the new US Embassy in London as the opportunity to do so. The working visit meant that under it, the US President would not have the opportunity of an audience with the Queen or any member of the royal family. Even the downgrade did not satisfy the opponents of the visit who just did not want him in their country and threatened to follow him wherever he went with placards and other visible signs of their dislike and opposition for the US president.
That was both an eerie and weird position for a US president to be facing. And the President himself found the way to get out of the embarrassment and postponed the visit. He let his paranoia and obsession with his predecessor to show him the way. He said that President Barack Obama had negotiated a "bad deal" in selecting the location of the new Embassy in London that he called "off location." He also accused his predecessor of selling the old Embassy that was located in the prestigious Grosvenor Street, Westminster for "peanuts" and therefore he saw no reason to undertake a visit to Great Britain for rendering credibility to such a "bad deal."
The reasons that were given by the President, as usual, turned out mostly to be untrue and pushed his credibility and that of the United States from the frying pan to the fire. The blame on President Obama for a "bad deal" did not hold out against facts. Built at a cost of over US$ 1.0 billion, the new embassy, according to the Washington Post, "is undeniably a showstopper". The decision to shift the Embassy was a part of security requirement for all US embassies in the aftermath of terrorist attacks in US embassies in Kenya and Tripoli in the 1990s long before President Obama took office. All steps related to the choice of the new embassy that President Trump called "off location" was completed by June 2008 while President Obama took office in January 2009.
And to make matters even worse for the President, three former US Ambassadors to Great Britain related closely to the issues openly stated in the media their views that left little doubt that the President was wrong on everything he said on the old embassy and the new one. Ambassador Bob Tuttle, who was Ambassador from 2005-2009 during the second term of President Bush who did most of the work for the sale of the old property, said that it was sold after a number of parties had shown interest and further that the prices offered "were exciting" and "at the time these were record prices." That nailed President Trump's criticism that the old property as Grosvenor was sold for "peanuts."
Ambassador Louis Susman, who was Ambassador from 2009-2013 during President Obama's first term, said that "as usual, the President was dead wrong" on everything he said on the controversy he himself created related to the old and the new US Embassy. And the incumbent Ambassador to London Woody Johnson appointed by President Trump put in the final nail in the coffin on the President's bag of lies and falsehoods to postpone his visit to Great Britain fearing widespread public demonstration and disapproval and blaming the postponement on President Obama. In an article for London's Evening Standard on January 12, he wrote: "Purchased and built from the sale of our London properties, the new embassy did not cost the U.S. taxpayer a cent, yet it is one of the most advanced embassies we have ever built."
When independent nations emerged in the dozens in Asia, Africa and Latin America through decolonization after the Second World War, there were leaders in those newly independent countries that the United States would criticize and laugh for their absurd behaviour and often rightly so. Even those leaders had not behaved in the manner that President Trump has shown in his first year in office. His reason to postpone his UK visit no doubt has become a laughable matter in every British household as in the rest of the developed world. His reference to countries such as Haiti while discussing immigration as "shit holes" has united Africa and Latin American countries. And his earlier decision on Jerusalem had united most of the Muslim nations against his administration. Is President Trump giving up US' position as the leader of the world for some unknown and mysterious reason?
The writer is a former Ambassador.