Trump announces cancellation of UK trip over "bad deal" embassy

WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump made a sudden announcement late Thursday night that he has canceled his trip to Britain due to disappointment over the "bad" U.S. embassy.

He tweeted that he was not "a big fan" of the Obama administration that 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 U.S. dollars.

"Bad deal," Trump said, adding "wanted me to cut ribbon -- NO!"

The trans-Atlantic alliance between the United States and Britain has been shaky ever since Trump assumed the presidency last January. His proposal of a strict ban on Muslim immigration has sparked wide controversy in the island nation. Matters got even worse when Trump retweeted video posts of a British ultra-rightist group targeting Muslim immigrants in November.

Under domestic pressure, British Prime Minister Theresa May said that Trump's retweeting was wrong, triggering the latter's retort demanding her not focus on him, but on anti-terrorism efforts in her own nation.

Trump's statement further irritated London, as many people and government officials asked May to withdraw her invitation to Trump to pay a state visit.

The two nations have also seen huge differences on multiple issues like Trump's retreat from the Paris climate accord, his decision regarding Jerusalem at the end of 2017 and his refusal to certify Iran's compliance with the historic Iran nuclear deal in October. Enditem