Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

At a time of polarization and political chaos, the United Kingdom and the United States are about to be led by two remarkably similar figures. On Tuesday, Britain's ruling Conservative Party elected Boris Johnson as their leader by an 

, sending him to No. 10 Downing Street. He will take office on Wednesday.

Like Trump, Johnson is a larger-than-life populist who has made controlling immigration and restoring his nation's standing in the world key issues in recent years. (Unlike Trump, he is given to 

, making ancient historical allusions and has written 

Last week, Trump predicted Johnson would "do a great job" and that they would get along well.

"He's a different kind of guy, but they say I'm a different kind of guy, too," Trump

How these men have come to lead their countries says a lot about the political forces roiling much of the West in recent years. By 2016, the U.S. and the U.K. were poised for political earthquakes. Key groups of voters in both countries were frustrated with establishment politics, suffering from the negative effects of globalization and worried that foreigners would change their communities.

Johnson and Trump responded. On the campaign trail, Trump famously promised to build a wall along the Mexican border to keep out undocumented immigrants, 

 were "bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists."

In Britain, Johnson helped lead the Brexit campaign, vowing to take back control of the country's borders by leaving the European Union, the political and economic union that allows people and goods to move freely among all 28 member states. The Brexit campaign suggested that 

 and become a back door for Syrian refugees to enter the United Kingdom.

"That's scare-mongering, Boris, and you should be ashamed," London Mayor Sadiq Khan said 



"As far as I know, the last time I looked, the government wants to accelerate Turkish membership," Johnson shot back. In fact, Turkish membership in the EU is 

Like Trump, Johnson has also emphasized his unease with the changing face of his homeland, using language that plays well with much of his white base but angers minorities and urban liberals. For instance, in his column in 

that women in burqas look like mailboxes or bank robbers.

, a professor of government at the University of Essex, says Johnson's message was clear: "The 'other,' in very broad terms, is a threat," Whiteley says.

That message is able to resonate in parts of England, Whiteley says, because immigration from Eastern Europe has affected public services, creating long waits for health care and overcrowded classrooms with students who don't have a strong command of English.

"There is a fear in poor communities that the few jobs they have will be taken away by immigrants, but also a cultural change into something that's unrecognizable and alien," Whiteley said.

Both Johnson and Trump have pledged to return their countries to a mythical, better age. Trump speaks fondly of what he calls the "old days," when Detroit ruled the auto industry, when most people said "Merry Christmas" during the holidays and — 

 — people could just beat up protesters at a political rally.

 as the era of World War II, when the U.K. stood up to the Nazis, or even earlier — the age of the British Empire. Johnson describes Brexit as an opportunity for the United Kingdom to forge an independent future, unshackled from the European Union.

"I think Winston Churchill was absolutely right when he said that the empires of the future would be empires of the mind," 

. "In expressing our values abroad, I believe that global Britain is a soft power superpower."

, an assistant professor in global politics at University College London, says both Johnson and Trump have tapped into nostalgia for a time when both nations were whiter and more homogeneous. In the case of the U.K., Klaas says there is an added layer of nostalgia for a time when Britain was a global power and punched far above its weight.

"The idea that the U.K. will be independent and powerful once again is a very, very potent one," says Klaas, an American, who is the author of 

The Despot's Apprentice: Donald Trump's Attack on Democracy

As both Trump and Johnson seek to transform their countries, they have also targeted what they describe as the enemies of change. Trump pledged to "drain the swamp," referring to the political class of legislators and lobbyists in Washington. Similarly, Johnson has targeted the Eurocrats in Brussels, whom he made a career of 

Today, Johnson portrays the European Union as a well-intentioned peace effort through economic integration that now threatens to become a superstate.


"It's not we who've changed, it's the EU that's changed out of all recognition," 

when he launched the Brexit campaign in 2016. "To keep insisting that the EU is about economics is like saying the Italian mafia is interested in olive oil and real estate."



Robin Niblett, director of Chatham House,

 the London think tank, says both men rode a popular backlash against globalization that was brewing in their respective countries. Industries 

 to lower-wage countries overseas, hollowing out communities in the American Midwest as well as in the north of England and Wales, areas that voted heavily 

The 2008 global financial crisis also had a big impact. Although the U.S. economy recovered, many Americans never did, while in the U.K., some communities suffered through debilitating cuts in government services and programs.

"It took us 20 years to get into this crisis of disappointment and dissatisfaction bubbling to the surface," Niblett says. "It's going to take us 20 years to get out of it."

How long Trump and Johnson will lead their countries is another question. Trump heads into the 2020 election with a still-strong economy and facing a divided Democratic Party. Johnson's first task in office will be to try to unravel the Gordian knot that is Brexit, a challenge that has paralyzed British politics for much of the past three years and ended the careers of his two immediate predecessors.

But whatever these leaders' political fate, the populist forces that propelled Johnson and Trump to power are likely to endure. 

Politics and Government News

Frank Langfitt

Author

At a time of polarization and political chaos, the United Kingdom and the United States are about to be led by two remarkably similar figures. Johnson will take office on Wednesday.

The similarities between Boris Johnson and Donald Trump

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox