Ever notice how Boris Johnson resembles Trump?

[geardaddy]

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And not just in hair but also views.

[shenmue]

1. Yes!

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Yes.

[LeftishBrit]

3. Though I don't like Boris, I wouldn't quite compare him with Trump

I think that Boris is ambitious, unprincipled, affected and fundamentally lazy, but I don't think that he is a fascist, whereas I do think Trump is.

IMO, the character whom Boris most resembles politically is probably the Vicar of Bray!

[Donald Ian Rankin]

5. And this is law I will maintain, until my dying day, sir.

[EnufAlready]

4. Me 2!

I have all along! And I believe he is just as nuts. This guy, like Trump, is stuck on stupid.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

6. Only physically.

Trump is a quintessential populist; Johnson is an establishment figure who uses an artfully-constructed buffoonish demeanour to cultivate populist appeal.

The closest thing to Trump in UK politics is Farage. I don't think they have anything very close to Johnson in American politics - self-deprecation doesn't go down as well there.

[LeftishBrit]

7. Agree about Farage

Also that there isn't anyone really like Boris in America. Perhaps the nearest in SOME ways is Arnie Schwarzenegger: personal celebrity status (though Arnie's of course is much greater); person of immigrant background appealing in part to anti-immigrants; playing to both sides when needing votes from the left to win office in liberal London/California and from the right when jockeying for position in his party. But the parallels only go so far - I can't imagine Boris as a bodybuilder, for example!

I think it's not so much that self-depreciation doesn't go down well in America as that intellectualism, even pseudo-intellectualism, is far more suspect in American politics than even in ours.

[truebrit71]

8. Yup.

Boris is a very cunning bastard....