Trump ally accuses Lord Cameron of ‘panda-hugging’ China
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A key ally of Donald Trump has accused Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron of “panda-hugging” China and “lecturing” Americans. Elbridge Colby, one of the front-runners to be chosen as Trump’s national security adviser, also said he would rather work with Labor than the Conservatives, accusing the former prime minister of “foreign interference” in US politics over the financing of Ukraine.
But Colby (pictured), who worked at the US Department of Defense when Trump was president, met with shadow foreign secretary David Lammy as Sir Keir Starmer plowed on with schmoozing Trump allies.
The Trump ally has criticized the $61 billion aid package that the US Congress approved last month, despite criticism from many Republican members of Congress. Lord Cameron and the British government approved the funding and the Foreign Secretary visited Congress and Trump at his Mar-a-Lago home before the vote.
Mr Colby said these trips were an “amazing intervention in the American system, I mean, talk about foreign interference,” when speaking on Politico’s Power Play podcast, The Telegraph reported.
“Cameron takes every opportunity to moralize against the Americans after being responsible for cutting off the British military and the ‘panda hug’ in the early 2010s,” he added. ‘So it really is the height of courage when someone like that comes and lectures us.’
As Prime Minister, Lord Cameron hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping for drinks in a pub in a bid to promote a closer relationship between China and Britain. China skeptic Colby could become an important voice in US foreign policy if Trump wins the presidential election in November.
And with a British general election looming and the possibility of the Labor Party taking power, Mr Colby said David Lammy is “far preferable to David Cameron”. He said Mr Lammy is “outlining a vision that is more in line with what people like me are talking about”, which is an increase in defense spending, with a UK focus on Europe.
This comes after The Telegraph reported that Mr Lammy is at the forefront of the Labor leader’s attempts to win over the ‘Trump world’. He has been to the US six times since being appointed shadow foreign secretary in 2021.
The Labor frontbencher has also held talks with Robert O’Brien and Matt Pottinger, who worked with Trump on national security. Mr Colby also targeted the Prime Minister over defense spending, labeling his recent pledge to increase it from 2 to 2.5 per cent of GDP as a “fake accounting hoax”.
