Donald Trump was right when he likened himself to Brexit – both are complete messes

As the latest EU talks have shown, the arrogance and incompetence surrounding both are staggering

The similarities between Theresa May's Brexit and Donald Trump have only grown over the last year (AP)

You’ve got to give Donald Trump credit – he may throw a lot of baseless ideas at the wall, but every so often he gets it right. It can just take time.

Before he became President, Trump tweeted “They will soon be calling me MR. BREXIT!” This was in August, and it didn’t really catch on; people preferred to call him other things, such as “monster”, “psychopath”, and “mad king”.

As Brexit progresses however, it is becoming more and more Trumpian in its nature. The further the UK Government edges us away from the EU, the more Brexit begins to share an increasing number of qualities with the President. Which is to say, both are becoming more and more of a mess.

The start of Brexit talk this week has been a good example. David Davis has been in full “Art of the Deal” mode ever since he became Brexit Secretary. And like Trump he has managed to embody a startling mix of arrogance and incompetence. Last year he said that Britain’s first talks would be with “not Brussels, but Berlin”, giving priority to a UK-German trade deal. This was before he discovered that you can’t strike a trade deal with a single EU country, as the union works in this thing called “unison”.

With the chance to redeem himself on the continental stage this week, Davis demanded free trade to be at the top of the agenda. The EU said no, to which he bravely fired back “Ok then”. Asked afterwards if the weakness of his negotiating position had been exposed, Davis said: “It’s not when it starts but how it finishes that matters”, which is one way of saying, “Yes, I have been owned”.

Trump and Brexiteers also share a common love for deregulation. So far the US President has rolled back a whole raft of Obama-era regulations on the environment, working conditions, and the financial sector. We’re yet to see what will happen, but the Telegraph has launched a campaign called “Cut the EU Red Tape”. Iain Duncan Smith has also called on Theresa May to “whittle away” current rules, while leading Leavers like Boris Johnson railed against EU regulations during the campaign.

Meanwhile, trade unions are warning Theresa May over eroding worker’s rights, and environmentalists fear protections won’t be enforced after we leave the EU. Michael Gove’s appointment as Environment Secretary has also caused alarm, after he called for wildlife protections to be slashed.

Like Trump, those in charge of Brexit also seem to think they can succeed despite everything being stacked up against them. Trump is facing a huge uphill struggle, facing several investigations into his campaign, and a growing resistance to his presidency. So far, he has failed to produce any major legislative achievement.

In the UK, the task of making Brexit succeed is similarly sisyphean. In the best of circumstances it would be hard for a government to get a good deal. In reality, the situation is farcical.

To recap: the government is trying to negotiate with the EU without a Parliamentary majority, after losing it in a snap election it didn’t need to call. And a week and a half after the election, it still hasn’t managed to strike a deal with the DUP.

It has also taken the unprecedented step of delaying the Queen’s Speech, and is starting to fall behind Labour in some polls. After her botched response to the Grenfell Tower fire, May’s popularity with the public has plummeted, while Corbyn’s has surged.

Meanwhile, Britain hasn’t negotiated a trade deal on its own for four decades, and three months ago had the lowest number of civil servants since the 1940s.

If you haven’t started screaming into a pillow yet, then there’s also this: because May called the snap general election in April after triggering Article 50 a couple weeks before, the UK has lost almost three months of its two-year negotiating period.

It’s incredible to think how, even without any of this, we’d still be facing the possibility of a bad deal. It’s mind-boggling.

Yet May doesn’t appear to be concerned. Like someone who has just jumped out of a plane without a parachute and given a thumbs up, she’s acting as if her sudden public decline isn’t happening.

What makes all of this particularly sad is that all of this is happening partly because voters were lied to. And not just small lies, but full-on post-truth lies. Many people voted for Brexit after being promised things like £350m for the NHS, immediately reduced immigration, cheaper food and no more bendy bananas (which worked on at least one person).

None of these are ever going to be happen, and Leavers have admitted as much. But this didn’t stop these lies becoming central messages of the campaign. Sound familiar? As Ukip donor Arron Banks has said “The remain campaign featured fact, fact, fact, fact, fact. It just doesn’t work. You have got to connect with people emotionally. It’s the Trump success.”

So yes, Trump was right about being Mr Brexit. And as talks get underway, he may continue to be proven right. Although if it stays on the same path, he may come to regret it.