Donald Trump slams Nine Elms US embassy site
US President Donald Trump has hit out at the new US embassy’s South London location which he describes as “horrible”.
In a speech in Michigan yesterday Trump blasted the embassy’s Nine Elms location as “horrible” and “lousy”.
He criticised his predecessors George W Bush and Barack Obama for the decision to move the US embassy from its historic site in Grosvenor Square to a new location south of the river in Battersea.
Read more: Yesterday’s feeble US embassy opening was no less than a snub from Trump
“We had the best site in all of London, the best site. Well, some genius said: ‘We’re going to sell the site and then we’re going to take that money and build a new embassy,’” he said.
“They sold the site for like $250m, they think they’re geniuses, they go out and they buy a horrible location and they build a new embassy,” he added.
The new $1.2bn (£880m) embassy opened in January in a new development between Battersea and Vauxhall.
Trump was slated to visit London for its opening, but he cancelled, blaming the decision on his dislike of the deal.
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
“We have an embassy in a lousy location, and I was supposed to cut the ribbon,” he said yesterday.
“It was a Bush-Obama special. But it could have been stopped by Obama. Would’ve been stopped by me,” he said.
“So I say: ‘What kind of deal is that? You sold this great site, it’s the best site in London.’ Literally, the best site. They were so happy they got $250m or whatever but they spent all that money – plus a lot more to build a new embassy in a lousy location,” he said.
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The January visit was cancelled amid reports that Trump feared a hostile reception and an absence of “bells and whistles” when he arrived.
Last week it was announced that Trump will pay an official visit to the UK on 13 July for bilateral talks with UK prime minister Theresa May.
Trump has recently been hosting major European leaders in Washington DC. First French President Emmanuel Macron then German chancellor Angela Merkel.
Trump and Macron have developed an unlikely “bromance” since Trump’s visit to Paris last year for Bastille Day where the pair watched a lavish military parade which included flyovers from military aircraft and a band playing a medley of Daft Punk hits.