The Atlantic

Trump Keeps Kicking Allies When They're Down

The president's critical tweets after the London attack fit a pattern.
Source: Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend,” the Bible —in other words, friends tell each other hard truths. For Donald Trump, that means , in the raw moments after an explosion on a London train dozens on Friday, that the “loser terrorist” behind the blast was in “the sights of” British law-enforcement and might have been stopped had the authorities been as “tough” and “proactive” and “nasty” as he aims to be. Trump’s national-security adviser scrambled to. The United States, McMaster , “stands in solidarity” with the British people.” But on the other side of the Special Relationship, the wounds had already been inflicted. “I never think it’s helpful for anybody to speculate on what is an ongoing investigation,” British Prime Minister Theresa May .

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