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American Werewolf in London: Spurred by Brexit, the Right Fuelled a Petty Dictator

Donald Trump has defiled American democracy for the last four years, and Britain has been part of the mob, says Sam Bright

Prime Minister Boris Johnson meets US President Donald Trump for bilateral talks during the 2019 G7 summit in Biarritz, France. Photo: Dylan Martinez/PA Archive/PA Images

American Werewolf in LondonSpurred by Brexit, the Right Fuelled a Petty Dictator

Donald Trump has defiled American democracy for the last four years, and Britain has been part of the mob, says Sam Bright

Without Donald Trump, “the US would be offering no support for Brexit and would be seeking to frustrate it,” wrote Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg in a column for the Times in May 2018, ahead of the President’s trip to London later that Summer. “The red carpet that is laid out must be spotless and the evidence of our close relationship on clear display.”

Since 2016, this has been the dominant attitude of Brexiters and the governing Conservative Party – with few exceptions – to the Trump presidency. Hypnotised by Trump’s xenophobic psyche, Nigel Farage jumped on the campaign bandwagon in 2016, introducing the candidate at a rally in Mississippi and grinning with coffee-stained teeth in Trump Tower, jubilant when he won.

The trickle-down effect is a popular concept in Conservative circles. Usually applied to economics, this idea has also been strangely evident in modern politics, with Farage’s beliefs consistently trickling down and infecting Conservative Party politics. The case of Trump has been no different.

While Theresa May maintained a degree of wariness towards the President during her time in Downing Street – matching her rigid stoicism – this caution has been hastily jettisoned during Boris Johnson’s premiership. Playing to Trump’s ego in the way only a fellow megalomaniac could understand, Johnson has fuelled the perception that he is cut from same Confederate-branded cloth as the American leader.

“They call him Britain Trump,” the President said, celebrating Johnson’s anointment as Prime Minister in July 2019. “Boris is good. He’s going to do a good job.”

And this was not just a superficial Hollywood bromance. As Nafeez Ahmed has catalogued for Byline Times, a complex trans-Atlantic ecosystem has developed in recent years, within which ideas are shared and resources pooled. Alt-right strategy master and former Trump campaign chief Steve Bannon even acted as an unofficial advisor to Johnson, while he was climbing the greasy pole to Downing Street – demonstrating the level of co-operation between populist forces in the UK and US.

Since 2019, the British state has leveraged its significant yet ever-diminishing political influence in support of Donald Trump and all that he embodies. Yesterday, this involved inciting protestors to storm the Capitol building while legislators were signing off Joe Biden’s victory in November’s Presidential Election. The mob unfurled Confederate flags in the corridors of power, branding assault rifles and attempting to loot national heirlooms. Four people died in the chaos and two suspected pipe bombs were discovered by police. The National Guard had to be summoned by Vice President Mike Pence, after Trump refused to give the order.

Boris Johnson condemned the scenes, tweeting: “The United States stands for democracy around the world and it is now vital that there should be a peaceful and orderly transfer of power.” Yet this failed to mask the Prime Minister’s effusive support for Trump – and acquiescence to Trumpism – over recent years. With the Brexit battalion in charge of the country, Britain has been part of the mob, baying and hollering as Trump launched an assault on Lady Liberty.

Indeed, the British Government’s Trump adoration has been remarkably persistent. After the President slumped to defeat in November, the UK sat in obedient compliance as Trump trotted out conspiracy theories about a rigged election – fomenting the rebellion that would spew over Capitol Hill yesterday.

“You are asking me to comment on the campaign commentary from both sides… which forgive me I will refrain from doing,” Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, in the hours after the election result.

Why has this been the case? Why has the Government pampered and praised a man with despotic instincts, defiling American democracy? Primarily, it has been a manifestation of Brexit, as suggested by Rees-Mogg.

Brexit is an act of international exclusion, garbed in the language of “global Britain”. In a fallacious attempt to regain sovereignty, the nation has divorced from Europe – souring relations with the continent and heightening the importance of other alliances. Alienating a temperamental President, while extracting the nation from the EU, would have spurred a diplomatic crisis. Therefore, in an attempt to protect a semblance of relevance on the world stage, the UK opted to become the President’s pet – hoping to receive a treat, in the form of a favourable post-Brexit trade deal.

Of course, Johnson and his allies were not unduly opposed to the President’s politics, which made their subservience easier to stomach. While I am unconvinced that Boris Johnson has a political ideology beyond aggressive self-promotion, his period in office has been marked by the same authoritarian, nativist impulses that have guided Trump. The prorogation of Parliament in 2019 and the Government’s treatment of Channel-crossing asylum seekers is clear proof of that. As CJ Werleman notes for Byline Times, the same trends that propelled riots at the US Capitol have infected British politics.

So, while America has an opportunity through the presidency of Joe Biden to recover from this ignoble period in its history, the UK is not so fortunate. We can expect more of the same to come – a populist Prime Minister with a convincing majority pandering to despots in order to forge alliances that compensate for an absence of liberal democratic allies. Lucky us.



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