Trump Check January 13, 2018

The Embassy Embarrassment: Trump Begs Off London Trip And Blames Obama

LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 12: Armed police patrol outside the new US embassy as soldiers prepare to raise the American flag for the first time on January 12, 2018 in London, England. President Trump has tweeted that he will not go ahead with his planned visit to the new billion-dollar embassy, blaming previous President Barack Obama's "bad" embassy deal as his reason for cancelling. Critics have speculated that Mr Trump could have been wary of protests and demonstrations if he chose to go ahead with his February visit. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Lost in the “shithole” storm of the last 48 hours was something else Donald Trump said, something else that is simply NOT true. Let’s call this tweet what it is, a lie.

Reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for “peanuts,” only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018

As we know Trump doesn’t like anything that his predecessor Barack Obama did, but the fact is Obama didn’t make the deal to move the US Embassy in London. That was a Republican, George W. Bush. And it was moved for security reasons, this was confirmed Friday by a US Embassy spokesperson.

So why did Trump really cancel his visit to London? Many say he didn’t want to face massive protests. Or as the former Labour Party leader Ed Miliband tweeted:

“Nope. It’s because nobody wanted you to come. And you got the message.”

And that’s a sentiment echoed by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan:

“Many Londoners have made it clear that Donald Trump is not welcome here while he is pursuing such a divisive agenda. It seems he’s finally got that message.”

Now it appears Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is going in the President’s place.