Donald Trump and Boris Johnson are at it again
Let’s be clear on one thing before we begin. Former British prime minister Boris Johnson’s recent endorsement of Donald Trump for US president (yes, he really did that) has nothing to do with Johnson’s personal preference. It has nothing to do with what, in Johnson’s considered opinion, would be best for America or the world. Johnson privately despises Trump and thinks he’s a dangerous, toxic lunatic. Johnson is endorsing Trump for the shock value and what a Trump victory might do for him.
When, in 2016, Johnson supported the moronic proposition that Britain would be better off without Europe (Brexit), he did so as a political calculation. He did so with the clear idea that if he wanted to be prime minister one day, Brexit was the best position for him to take. He was privately opposed to Brexit and saw it as a bad move for Britain. But that was another matter. In that respect Johnson is like Kevin McCarthy or Donald Trump himself, a political whore without any moral compass or core principles whatsoever.
This time Johnson, who is very pro-Ukraine, is endorsing Trump because he thinks it will make him relevant again. Oh, and since he knows that a Trump presidency would be fatal to Ukraine, he is saying — despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary — that if re-elected Donald Trump will protect Ukraine from Russia. Johnson is perfectly aware that this is a lie and an utter delusion, but Johnson never let reality come between him and what he wants.
In supporting Trump, Johnson also claims to believe that Trump really will retake the White House in November. If, by some miracle, Trump is successful, Johnson is hoping that Trump will remember his endorsement and help him in his bid to return to power. Also, Johnson thinks that correctly “predicting” a Trump victory will give him a certain political cachet, and transform him into an overnight election prognosticator à la Michael Moore.
No doubt his friends back in Ukraine, whom Johnson visited shortly after being unceremoniously jettisoned from the premiership, will perceive Johnson’s endorsement of Trump as a vile and rancid betrayal. They are correct. It is a vile and rancid betrayal. Knowing ths, Johnson has made it all okie dokie by insisting that Trump will do a volte-face and protect Ukraine from big bad Russia, a lethal but deliberate miscalculation that Ukrainians will pay for in blood and the loss of the soul of their country. But Boris back in power makes it all worthwhile, you see.
“Yes, folks, the great orange dirigible is miraculously re-inflating across the Atlantic,” Johnson wrote weirdly in his weekly Daily Mail column. “The pachydermous human bouncy castle is rising again. Following his sweeping victory in Iowa, Donald Trump is now the overwhelming favourite to be the Republican nominee, and odds on to take the Presidency.”
Thus spake one irrelevant blowhard of another irrelevant blowhard. But if Boris wants to be remembered as a political prognosticator, now would be a good time for him to start writing Donald Trump’s epitaph. Along with his own. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.