Donald and Boris
“I like Boris Johnson. I always have. He’s a different kind of a guy, but they say I’m a different kind of guy too.”
President Trump, speaking to reporters on July 19th, 2019
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Some folks are considering Donald Trump and England’s new head of state, Boris Johnson, to be like soul mates.
They do have a few things in common.
They’re both portly political populists, with, er, some interesting hair; they’re both, well, allow the British online publication, The Guardian, to take it from there: “Both are loudmouthed man-children, with a history of adultery and other scandals, whose professional success is a combination of immense privilege, unscrupulous opportunism and relentless self-promotion, all happily promoted by a complicit media environment.”
The comparisons don’t end there.
Ironically, Trump and Johnson are both New Yorkers.
Trump was born in the borough of Queens in June of 1946. While, Prime Minister Johnson was born 18 years later, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
In fact, he held a dual American/British citizenship until 2016. That year, he renounced his American citizenship, to avoid paying a large tax bill. He really hadn’t lived in the United States, by the way, since he was 5 years old.
But don’t be fooled by those similarities. Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and Donald John Trump have two very different ways of looking at the world.
That’s probably because, in part, they ascended to the highest offices of their respective countries while taking completely different paths.
Trump had never held a public office before he was elected president.
He was known as a wealthy TV star.
Johnson had been a journalist before he became a member of Parliament, a Secretary of Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and the mayor of London. His political career started in 2001.
Johnson is thought to be a scholar who wrote a best-selling book about one of his predecessors – Winston Churchill (The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History). Trump gained fame after writing a book about himself (The Art of the Deal).
As bombastic as Johnson seems to be, he’s still something of a wordsmith.
In December 2015, after Trump claimed that areas of London were dangerous because of radical groups, Johnson – the mayor of London at the time responded: “The only reason I wouldn’t visit some parts of New York is the real risk of meeting Donald Trump.”
Trump is far less adroit with the use of the English language. When he became aware of the fact that Boris Johnson would become England’s new Prime Minister, he claimed that people call him the “Britain Trump.” (He apparently doesn’t understand that the phrase carries a certain incongruity)
While Trump considers himself to be a conservative (many conservatives claim he’s not one), Johnson is an avowed social liberal on several issues.
Johnson believes in abortion rights; In the past, Trump even claimed those people who get abortions should be punished.
Trump takes an extremely dim view of immigration, while Johnson has spoken out about its benefits.
In fact, on his first day as prime minister, he floated the idea of amnesty for 500,000 undocumented migrants.
While Johnson is strongly for England pulling out of the European Union (Brexit), he’s still very much of an internationalist. He is a fervent supporter of the United Nations and NATO.
Trump is an avowed nationalist, whose “America first” rhetoric is at odds with internationalism.
Trump backed out of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, within months of him taking office in 2017.
Boris Johnson fully supports universal efforts to combat climate change.
Johnson has weighed in against gender discrimination.
Trump has hardly ever mentioned it.
What might be a sticking point between Trump and the new British head of state, is how Trump recently attacked four freshmen Congresswomen.
Johnson was quite vocal about it.
“If you are the leader of a great multiracial, multicultural country you simply cannot use that kind of language about sending people back to where they came from. It’s totally unacceptable,” said Johnson.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight and 20-year TV-news veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.