US Allies Awkwardly Walk Back Past Comments About Donald Trump

Several U.S. ally leaders who have made highly critical comments about Donald Trump are now playing down their previous negative remarks as they rush to post messages of goodwill to the President-elect.

Trump won the U.S. election this week after promising his diplomatic policies would quickly end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. But multiple politicians around the world who now want Trump's support on these international issues have expressed potentially offensive opinions about him before, possibly never imagining they would one day have to work with him.

This includes several members of the left of center Labour Party in the U.K. who, up until this year, were out of office, and spoke freely against the conservative Republican leader from the government's opposition backbenches.

The U.K.'s new Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, wrote in a 2018 article that Trump was a "neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath" and the year before that he wrote on X, which was still Twitter: "Yes, if Trump comes to the UK I will be out protesting on the streets. He is a racist KKK and Nazi sympathizer."

But, on Thursday, when Lammy was asked about this on the BBC Newscast podcast, he said the comments were "old news" and went on to praise Trump's hospitality.

"I think that what you say as a backbencher and what you do wearing the real duty of public office are two different things," Lammy said, "and I am Foreign Secretary. There are things I know now that I didn't know back then."

Telling about when he met Trump in New York, Lammy said his past comments were "not even vaguely" brought up.

"[Trump] was very generous, very gracious, very keen to make sure that we felt relaxed and comfortable in his surroundings, he was funny, he was warm about the U.K, very warm about the Royal Family I've gotta tell you," Lammy said.

Lammy also said he had common ground with Trump's vice president pick JD Vance. "We're both from poor backgrounds, both suffered from addiction issues in our family which we've written about … both of us [are] Christians," Lammy said.

Similarly, the U.K.'s Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has seemingly glossed over the fact she called Trump an "absolute buffoon" during the pandemic and saying in 2020, when he lost the election, that she was "so happy to see the back of Donald Trump."

Instead, on Thursday, she revealed on X in more positive messaging that she had spoken with Vance. "We spoke about our plans for the future and how, working together, we build on the special relationship between our great countries," Rayner wrote.

Meanwhile, Australia's ambassador to the U.S., former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, deleted a post from 2020 calling Trump "the most destructive president in history," according to Politico.

Rudd then released a statement saying he had done this "out of respect for the office of President of the United States," adding: "This has been done to eliminate the possibility of such comments being misconstrued as reflecting his positions as Ambassador and, by extension, the views of the Australian Government."

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has repeatedly hit out at Trump, calling his opinion "false and dangerous" and, in response to Trump's comments about COVID, wrote: "Be afraid of cynical powerful people spreading lies about it."

But Tusk was one of many who congratulated Trump on Wednesday, saying: "I look forward to our cooperation for the good of the American and Polish nations."

French President Emmanuel Macron has also made multiple criticisms of Trump, calling him "very nasty" and "insulting" after Trump called NATO "brain-dead."

Macron was one of the first leaders to congratulate Trump this week, saying: "Ready to work together as we did for four years. With your convictions and mine. With respect and ambition. For more peace and prosperity."

Newsweek has contacted Trump's team, via email, for any comment.

Former NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg, center front left, speaks with U.S. President Donald Trump, at a NATO leaders meeting in 2019 in England. Multiple leaders who have been critical of Trump in the past have... AP