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US president Donald Trump canceled a visit to London scheduled for early this year, saying he was disappointed with the “Obama administration having sold” the U.S. embassy in the British capital.
“[The] 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,” Trump said in a tweet late on Thursday.
However, the embassy website showed that the decision to move the location was taken months before Barack Obama took office in January 2009.
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
The US Embassy and Consulates in the UK said in October 2008 the embassy would be relocated for security reasons.
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“Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!” Trump said on Twitter.
The United States is leaving behind an imposing 1960 stone and concrete embassy in London’s upmarket Grosvenor Square - an area known as ‘Little America’ during World War Two, when the square also housed the military headquarters of General Dwight D Eisenhower.
The new embassy on the South Bank is a veritable fortress set back at least 30 meters from surrounding buildings - mostly newly-erected high-rise residential blocks - and incorporating living quarters for the US Marines permanently stationed inside. The land was sold to the US government by Irish developer Sean Mulryan’s Ballymore Group after a deal was reached in 2008. The Ballymore Group have other commercial and residential development projects in the area estimated to be worth over €2 billion.
The $1 billion construction, overlooking the River Thames, was wholly funded by the sale of other properties in London. – Reuters