The White House is “deeply concerned” about Edward Miliband’s appointment as the UK’s foreign secretary. Donald Trump was reminded of the harsh and critical remarks the former Labour leader had made about him in the past.

New Prime Minister Andy Burnham has been warned that Miliband faces “serious diplomatic repair work” in relations with Washington after his appointment on Monday sparked sharp displeasure in the Trump administration.

The former energy secretary had previously engaged in repeated public disputes with Trump over climate policy and democratic institutions, and in 2016 he publicly called the American president “a racist, a misogynist and a self-proclaimed groper.”

A source close to the US president told The Independent: “This appointment has caused genuine outrage.”

Relations between the politicians have remained strained for more than a decade. Miliband previously said: “We must do everything we can at home and abroad to resist the worst manifestations of Trumpism... These are dark times for America and the whole world.”

In 2017, he said that Trump had “lowered the bar for stupidity,” and later took part in the Stop Trump protest march in London. He also criticized Trump for his “extremely strange relationship with Russia” and accused him of lowering political standards.

For his part, Trump harshly criticized Miliband’s “green fanaticism,” accusing him of blocking the expansion of UK oil and gas production in the North Sea.

One of Trump’s allies told The Independent: “Trump forgets nothing. And he will not forget this either. Miliband has a colossal amount of work ahead of him to restore diplomatic contact.”

A consultant working with the White House and the US State Department added: “This appointment was met with hostility. The US government no longer takes Britain seriously. Ed Miliband is known in Washington only in a negative light — as an uncompromising eco-radical.”

Representatives of the US administration also recalled that Prime Minister Andy Burnham himself said in 2021: “Any British politician who shakes Trump’s hand should burn with shame.”

According to The Independent, Burnham appointed Miliband head of the Foreign Office in part to reform the department around Britain’s climate goals and to find a way to restore international aid spending to 0.7% of GDP, after it had been cut under Keir Starmer.

An additional source of irritation in Washington remains the events of 2013, when Miliband, as leader of the opposition, withdrew support for military action against Assad in Syria, causing the government’s initiative to fail in parliament and leaving the US without a key ally.