Boris Johnson and the Conservatives will come to regret the way they handled Donald Trump

The prime minister will attempt to reinvent himself for Joe Biden, but his fawning for the outgoing president has caused more damage than he would like to admit, writes Andrew Grice

Boris Johnson’s flattery of Trump did not achieve the US-UK trade deal the PM wanted (Getty)

As Donald Trump’s disastrous presidency ends in disgrace, it is an awkward moment for those Conservatives, including Boris Johnson, who curried favour with him and even admired him. 

Operation Dump Trump started when it became clear he would lose last November’s election, as Johnson moved quickly to cuddle up to President-elect Joe Biden. On consecutive days, the prime minister made announcements on defence spending and climate change designed to woo the president-elect. He described his first phone call with Biden as “refreshing”. To Downing Street’s immense relief Biden, who once called Johnson a “physical and emotional clone of Donald Trump”, is a grown-up ready to let bygones be bygones.

Yet some now inconvenient truths can’t be erased and shouldn’t be forgotten. Like his predecessors, Johnson saw it as in the national interest to get close to whoever is US president but should have realised Trump was different. Others, like Germany’s Angela Merkel, did from the outset, their judgment totally vindicated by this week’s Trump-induced insurrection at the Capitol.

Just before becoming prime minister, Johnson threw Kim Darroch, the UK ambassador in Washington, under the proverbial bus to spare Trump’s blushes by refusing to stand by him after the leaking of his diplomatic cables. Yet Darroch’s unvarnished warnings came true. “We don’t really believe this administration is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional; less unpredictable; less faction-riven; less diplomatically clumsy and inept,” he wrote. Trump branded Darroch a “stupid guy” and “pompous fool” but it’s clear who wears those labels now.

Johnson did have some differences with Trump, such as on climate change. But he couldn’t risk a rift with the EU and US at the same time, another unwelcome by-product of Brexit. Yet his living up to the president’s description of him as “Britain Trump” now looks awful. To flatter him, Johnson called for a “Trump deal” with Iran on its nuclear weapons programme. He bowed to Trump’s pressure to end Huawei’s involvement in the UK’s 5G network. What did all this achieve? Very little, and certainly not the US-UK trade deal Johnson wanted.

Some Conservative right-wingers privately saw Trump’s populism and culture wars as a model the Tories could imitate to retain power. Initially, they welcomed his showing in the election, saying the Democrats had performed badly; that doesn’t look so clever now the Republicans have lost both houses of Congress as well as the White House. Eventually, several Tories described to me what they saw as “a defeat for Trump but not for Trumpism”.

Today the Tories wouldn’t touch toxic Trump with the longest bargepole in the world. But they have already suffered some contamination. Johnson has more in common with the world’s chief populist than he cares to admit. His readiness to break international law during the EU trade negotiations echoed Trump’s disdain for multilateral institutions and was hardly the act of a leader who respects the democratic world’s rules-based system. His decision to suspend parliament for five weeks and attacks on the judiciary is of a piece with Trump’s war on judges.

Their electoral strategies were also on parallel lines, appealing to blue collar workers left behind by globalisation and presenting themselves as the antidote to an out-of-touch governing establishment as they aspired to become the new elite.  

Johnson appeared to endorse Trump’s recipe for the Brexit negotiations, which as foreign secretary he described as “go in bloody hard” and “create all sorts of chaos”. In the same leaked recording, he said: “I am increasingly admiring of Donald Trump. I have become more and more convinced that there is method in his madness.”  

No doubt the chameleon-like Johnson will reinvent himself for the Biden era. But the Trump admirers in his party should take note of where the politics of division and extremism ends. Although the UK often follows US political trends, this is one time when it must not.

Johnson was not alone in toadying to a US president. In 1997, Tony Blair’s chief of staff told Britain’s incoming US ambassador to “get up the arse of the White House and stay there”. Desperate to win an early Trump invite to Washington, Theresa May played her trump card – her Queen – by dangling the state visit he wanted to make to Britain.  

UK politicians in all parties should learn lessons from this week’s shameful events in America. It’s perfectly possible to have a business-like relationship with an important foreign leader without flattery and subservience, and worth remembering that fawning behaviour can come back to bite you.