‘Smart guy’ Sunak’s Truss criticism vindicated, says ex-Trump adviser

Rishi Sunak was completely correct in his damning assessment of Liz Truss’s economic strategy in the summer, which was always doomed to fail, a former US diplomat has said. Gordon Sondland, who served as the US ambassador to the European Union under ex-President Donald Trump from 2018 to 2020, also praised Britain’s new Prime Minister as a ‘smart guy’ – and said he had high hopes for the 42-year-old’s chances of being a success in office.Mr Sondland was speaking via video link from New York days after Mr Sunak moved into Number 10 following Ms Truss’s resignation earlier this month.Ms Truss was appointed Prime Minister on September 6 after beating Mr Sunak in a ballot of Conservative Party members.However, she quit after just 44 days weeks after the mini-budget delivered by then-Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, featuring £45billion in uncounted tax cuts, spooked the markets, saw the value of sterling plummet, and pushed up interest rates. Rishi Sunak and former US President Donald Trump (Image: GETTY) Gordon Sondland during his time as US ambassador to the EU (Image: GETTY)Mr Sondland, who has been watching events carefully from across the Atlantic, told Express.co.uk he had never been convinced by her credentials.The 65-year-old, whose new book The Envoy: Mastering the Art of Diplomacy with Trump and the World, is published by Bombardier Books next month, said: ‘I have a lot of hope for the new PM.’He’s obviously a very smart guy, he doesn’t need the job and he’s independent.JUST IN: Donald Trump 2024 White House bid torn apart by Paul Ryan Rishi Sunak is a “smart guy”, said Mr Sondland (Image: GETTY) I don’t know what Truss was thinking when she did thisGordon Sondland’And he called this while Truss and he were, running against one another.’And he’s been proven correct. I mean, it was pretty obvious, I don’t know what Truss was thinking when she did this.’He explained: ‘I like small government and low taxes but this is like a drug addict who can’t go cold turkey.DON’T MISSMet Office predicts snow to hit UK as temperatures plunge in days [LATEST]Putin rages at West’s ‘dangerous game’ in speech hours after launch [SPOTLIGHT]Meghan McCain says Harry ‘trolling’ Royal Family with book title [REVEAL] Rishi Sunak tackles Liz Truss on her economic strategy during the Tory election hustings (Image: GETTY) Liz Truss left Downing Street on Tuesday (Image: GETTY)’There needs to be some sort of an off-ramp that’s gradual. Just like in our situation right now with energy policy.’Do we want a no-CO2 planet at some point? Absolutely, I don’t think anyone would argue that.’A no-CO2 planet is better than a CO2 planet. Gordon Sondland’s book is published next month (Image: Bombardier Books)’The question is, what do you have to do from here to there to get to that point, literally shutting off all of our fossil fuels immediately, and counting on wind and solar to save us just doesn’t work. The physics don’t add up.’So it’s the same thing with the financial situation in the UK, there needs to be a transition period and maybe that’s a year or two. It’s certainly not a week.’Comparing the political system of the UK, Mr Sondland added: ‘I always compare it to our system where if you have a horse you want to change there are three years and 10 months left in their term, as opposed to flushing them immediately when they do something you don’t like or don’t approve of. Gordon Sondland, the former US Ambassador to the EU (Image: David Kennerly)’It’s a very different system. You can argue both sides of this question.’Some would say you got to give people a chance to make a mistake and fix it and recover.’And some people say, you know, we don’t have the patience. If things are running off the cliff, you got to fix it.’