A few weeks after interviewing Ted Malloch, the man Trump would like to become the next American ambassador to the EU, I receive a curious email from him. It is entirely blank except for a link to an op-ed written by him for Politico marking the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. He had co-authored the piece with Giulio Tremonti, formerly Silvio Berlusconi’s Minister of Economy and Finances. Its title was: “How the EU lost its way: Brussels was never meant to have so much power”.
This is not the first time that Malloch has turned his critical gaze on the EU. After being invited to appear on the BBC’s This Week, host Andrew Neil asked Malloch why he wanted to be the American ambassador to the EU. ‘I had in a previous career a diplomatic post where I helped bring down the Soviet Union,’ Malloch quipped, ‘so maybe there’s another union that needs a little taming.’
His answer prompted a furious response from the British media and made Malloch an overnight enemy of the people who voted to remain in the EU.
‘I’m a pretty easy target,’ Malloch says on the zealous campaign against him by some newspapers. ‘But that was said in a facetious way on a late-night TV show that I was told was a humorous show. I’d spent the day riding around Westminster in a Cadillac talking about the future of US/UK relations for the same programme and I thought it was a funny set-up. The actual show didn’t take place until 11pm, so for a long time I had been in banter with the host, who I like, and has a sense of humour.
I’m a pretty easy target, but that was said in a facetious way on a late-night TV show that I was told was a humorous show
‘I made that off-handed comment which got blown out of proportion. I guess I should say as a rejoinder: I don’t believe that the European Union is a “Soviet Union”. It might have lots of socialists in it, but it’s not a one-party state, and it’s not undemocratic. Though I think it could be more democratic.
‘But when they call me “malevolent” based on one comment I made on a late-night TV show, I frankly think that’s insincere. I don’t have any animosity whatsoever against Europe or Europeans, it’s actually quite the opposite. You know what they call me in America? A Europhile.’
Much as there may be a climate of vilifying anything Trump touches, Malloch is not quite the villain people may want him to be.
‘I’m not a British citizen so I couldn’t vote in the referendum anyway,’ he argues, ‘but before the vote I had only written one piece on the topic, where I had a very balanced approach, saying if I could I would vote less for the economics and more for reasons of national sovereignty. I’d never even met him before December, but now I almost uniformly find myself in photographs with Nigel Farage, who I have no objection to, but I’ve only met him three times. And I’m called a “strident Brexiteer” because of this?’
Nevertheless, Malloch doesn’t seem to hold a grudge. ‘Politics can be a brutal bloodsport,’ he says, surprisingly measured. ‘Sometimes newspapers are interested in having a discussion but often they’re just trying to make a story and put you in a box with your picture on it. I think I’m more complex than that, though.’
With a name like Theodore “Ted” Roosevelt Malloch, it’s not at all surprising that Trump has taken an interest in this slightly academic political scientist and author. But ever since the President named Malloch as his choice to become the next American ambassador to the EU, he has been seen as Trump’s man. According to Malloch, this is just one side of the story.
I’d never even met him before December, but now I almost uniformly find myself in photographs with Nigel Farage, who I have no objection to, but I’ve only met him three times
‘We met about 27 years ago in Florida, where I was playing in a charitable golf tournament,’ Malloch says. ‘So I may very well have known him for two decades, but really that equates to a few conversations and attending some of his events. I’ve never been in business with him, for example.
‘I was on the Council for National Policy from the very beginning with Trump so I had been writing to him offering my ideas and talking with people in his inner circle,’ he continues, explaining how he first got the tap on the shoulder for the EU ambassadorship. ‘It used to be that the President-elect would ask who’s given money and where can we fit them into the administration, but Trump was self-financing so he was more interested in people who aligned with him politically and were loyal. I fit those categories.’
Some believe this is the only reason Trump offered him a position. While he modestly argues ‘one shouldn’t speak too haughtily about one’s own accomplishments,’ Malloch has a very impressive CV. At the age of 28 he already had a senior position in Reagan’s State Department and by 35 he’d added roles at the UN and the World Economic Forum.
In spite of this, Malloch refuses to confirm he will absolutely have a position in Trump’s administration. ‘You could think that [you are] going to get such-and-such a position only for them to come back and say they aren’t interested in offering you any position, because there’s been too much controversy.’ Given the amount of notoriety Malloch has already garnered, he is happy to joke that his ‘political lifespan might end up being very short indeed’.
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