Why has Donald Trump suddenly taken a shine to Boris Johnson?

Boris must have made a significant impression on the US president during the recent G7 summit – and his proroguing move comes right out of the Donald Trump playbook

The US president claimed people in the UK refer to Boris as 'Britain Trump' (Getty/PA)

With Brexit raging on one side of the Atlantic and 2020 campaigns raging on the other, it’s not often we get a UK/US crossover episode these days – but it happened this week, when Donald Trump waded in on the latest controversy surrounding Boris Johnson.

“Would be very hard for Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of Britain’s Labour Party, to seek a no-confidence vote against New Prime Minister Boris Johnson, especially in light of the fact that Boris is exactly what the U.K. has been looking for, & will prove to be “a great one!” Love U.K.,” the president tweeted on Wednesday afternoon. Leaving crimes against grammar aside, this was a significant couple of sentences. Despite cosying up to Nigel Farage in public more than once (including at a recent rally), Trump rarely attempts to involve himself in the actual intricacies of Brexit or the British parliamentary system. To namedrop Jeremy Corbyn and a no-confidence vote in one tweet shows that Boris must have made a significant impression on the US president during the recent G7 summit, despite having previously called The Donald “unfit for office”.

It’s well known that Trump is a sucker for flattery – and that Johnson can build a convincing argument for something even after publicly supporting the other side (see: Brexit). The two leaders looked chummy in pictures taken in Biarritz on the weekend, and talks of a “great trade deal” between the US and UK have abounded. Johnson may be using his talents with language and diplomacy to get America on-side in the event of a damaging crash-out from the EU; or he may be preparing to sell the NHS and other public services to nefarious American contractors at knockdown prices. At this point, it’s simply impossible to know. But one thing’s for certain: Trump has warmed to our new prime minister much more than he ever did to Theresa May, and is less than pleased about the idea that Jeremy Corbyn might replace him any time soon.

Numerous political commentators have drawn comparisons between the two blonds in DC and Downing Street since BoJo won the Conservative leadership contest. These comparisons were, of course, encouraged by Trump himself when he claimed that people in the UK refer to Johnson as “Britain Trump”. The two men share more than just a hairstyle, for sure, but Johnson is much more concerned with appearing traditionally prime-ministerial. You won’t find him tweeting about “fake news” from a personal Twitter account, or calling his opponents “low-IQ losers”.

It did, however, feel like Boris had taken a leaf out of Donald Trump’s book when he asked the Queen to suspend parliament for five weeks ahead of the Brexit deadline yesterday. This is the sort of colouring-outside-the-lines democracy Trump has a real penchant for: it’s not quite against the rules, but many would argue it’s against the spirit of the law. Like Donald Trump “joking” that he might run for unlimited terms, Boris Johnson is flirting with danger here. Both might argue they’re just trying to “get the job done” and doing it in a way that merely upsets the establishment, but the UK is not the US – and a “Britain Trump” who refuses to play by parliamentary rules might not go down as well in middle England as his counterpart does in middle America. Indeed, even in middle America, patience seems to be wearing thin.

Johnson’s move to suspend parliament looks like it might be a strategy ahead of a general election, wherein he will position himself as the only Brexit believer against a catalogue of cross-party naysayers. Likewise, Trump is in full election mode, having launched his official 2020 presidential campaign a few weeks ago. Both will likely use a close relationship with the other as evidence of the respect and power they command on the world stage. If their gambles don’t pay off, however, I can’t imagine Boris will get a post-2020 invite to the now-notorious Trump resort in Doral, Florida. This friendship is based on mutual gain, and when that collapses, little love will be lost between these two unconventional leaders.

Yours,

Holly Baxter

Opinion editor (US)