"Reckless and a danger to the world," was how Peter Mandelson — Lord Mandelson, a longtime senior official in the UK’s Labour Party who now sits in the House of Lords as a life peer — described the once and future U.S. President Donald J. Trump in an interview with an Italian journalist in 2019, during Trump’s first presidency.
In other public statements, Mandelson has called Trump a "bully" and "little short of a white nationalist and racist."
Last week, the UK’s new Labour Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced without a trace of irony that he was "delighted" to appoint the same Mandelson his country’s new ambassador to the United States.
Starmer hopes the noble lord, who was confirmed by the British government on Friday, will use his "unrivalled experience" to help both countries "move into a new chapter in our friendship" when President Trump returns to office next month.
Mandelson, who has never served in any diplomatic role and would be a rare political appointment among UK envoys, expressed appreciation for what a described as a "great honour," telling the BBC it's "absolutely essential that we establish a relationship with President Trump that enables us not only to understand and interpret what he’s doing but to influence it."
Trump adviser Chris LaCivita has already dismissed Mandelson on X as an "absolute moron" who should "stay home."
At home, former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who remains a senior member of parliament, has called for an investigation into "whether or not this is reliable or anyway likely to cause offence in the United States."
The British press has been characteristically relentless, commenting not only on Mandelson’s statements but also on his checkered political past, aspects of his private life, rumored connections to Jeffrey Epstein, China business contacts, and, perhaps most damningly of all, strong speculation that he will fail in his mission.
Just one month before his nomination, Mandelson himself argued that his political opposite, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, whose party sits to the right of the Conservatives and now actively competes against both them and Labour, would be the right man for the job of establishing an effective dialogue with Trump, a role Farage has said he is willing to take.
If Mandelson had any more doubts about his own unsuitability for his proposed role, he may wish to consult with his fellow life peer Lord Darroch of Kew, who, as Sir Kim Darroch, resigned from the Washington embassy in 2019 after leaked cables revealed he had called Trump’s first administration "clumsy and inept."
That was enough for Trump to declare he would no longer work with Darroch, who beat a hasty retreat and resigned in humiliation.
President Trump should make it easy for the befuddled Brits and reject Mandelson’s accreditation as ambassador.
Legally, he can step take this step under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and Optional Protocols of 1961, which requires countries to obtain acceptance of their envoys from host governments and allows for their refusal for any reason or none.
Anyone who has arrogantly and publicly insulted our president on multiple occasions is certainly not the right person for a job in Trump's administration.
Farage is already close to Trump and would be far more effective. Dame Karen Pierce, the UK’s highly effective and widely respected current ambassador, would also do well if she stayed.
If Lord Mandelson comes to Washington, he will be a lame duck from day one, unimportant and ignored, incapable of either commanding respect or inspiring trust, and impeding rather than facilitating the prosperity of his country and its people.
He should remain at home.
Paul du Quenoy is president of the Palm Beach Freedom Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in History from Georgetown University. Read more — Here.
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