The British Trump

Jonathan Last: “I never fully bought the idea that Boris Johnson was the UK’s version of Trump. For one thing, he’s smart. For another thing, he was semi-competent at the the basics of governing. And for a third thing, Johnson never seemed like he was intent on blowing up NATO because he was a Russian cat’s paw.”

“Certainly, the similarities to Trump were too obvious to ignore. Both old men with extravagantly engineered hair. Both populist avengers who played to the working man while privately reviling the rubes. Both interested in using raw executive power in ways rarely contemplated. Both tabloid darlings. Both guys so corrupt that their scandals had scandals.”

“And another similarity was Johnson’s unwillingness to yield power even as his government collapsed around him.”

“But for all of their similarities, there are three very large differences between Boris and Donald that are worth talking about because they highlight how particularly dangerous Trump was/is to American democracy.”