Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Boris was never Trump

Their similarities rest mainly in their enemies

The urge to compare Boris Johnson to Donald Trump was always irresistible. It has been fun, too. Both men are colourful creatures in a political environment that elevated dullards. Both men had privileged childhoods. Both are veteran womanisers with much younger wives. Both are brilliant electoral campaigners and great communicators, albeit in very different ways. Both are also much hated.

Yesterday, as Johnson’s government collapsed on top of him and he appeared to be refusing to resign, some journalists instantly went for the ‘Britain Trump’ allusions. Johnson was desperately ‘clinging on’ to power; ‘unable to face reality’ and ‘refusing to respect the basic conventions of parliamentary democracy.’ Some Twitter blowhards even started bloviating about Johnson’s refusal to resign as comparable to Trump’s behaviour around 6 January.

It’s at such moments that the Trump-Boris comparisons break down. Boris Johnson is of course a prime minister, not a president. He has not lost an election and then refused to accept the result. Johnson has in fact simply lost control of his party – in a way that Trump never did – and he has now bowed to the inevitable and quit. ‘Nobody in politics is indispensable’, he just said in his resignation speech. That’s not something Donald Trump would say, at least not about himself.

That’s partly because Boris is in fact a very different character to Trump and a very different leader too. Trumpism was an identifiable mass movement. Johnsonianism never was, perhaps to its credit. Trump and Johnson were both loathed by the old guards of the political parties they took over – but Trump proved far more effective at bending his party to his will because he cultivated armies of loyalists. Boris never did. Trump faced down defections and rebellions because ultimately Republicans were too scared of being destroyed by Trumpist primary voters to quit.





Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in