In June 2018, the then Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, proposed that President Donald J. Trump should be in charge of Brexit.
“Imagine Trump doing Brexit,” Johnson said, according to a leaked audio recording obtained and published by BuzzFeed.
“I have become more and more convinced that there is method in his madness.”
“He’d go in bloody hard … There would be all sorts of breakdowns, there would be all sorts of chaos.
“Everyone would think he’d gone mad. But actually, you might get somewhere. It’s a very, very good thought,” he said.
In reality, it’s a very, very bad thought.
Trump causes discord in his wake every time he talks or Tweets.
His method of management is to abandon diplomacy and use bellicose, bully-boy tactics, causing as Johnson so gleefully admires, “all sorts of breakdowns… all sorts of chaos.”
Which is also exactly what Brexit offers us too. Breakdowns and chaos.
During the USA election campaign Donald Trump called himself ‘Mr Brexit’. The name fits. Trump’s style of populist nationalism and insular policies are isolating America just as Brexit is isolating Britain.
Brexit, Trump, populism, nationalism, bigotry…they all come from the same DNA. We should have learnt from history that this strand of politics leads to disharmony, conflict and yes, even war.
On the weekend of 8-9 June 2018, Trump huffily left the G7 summit held in Quebec, causing rifts and ruptures. He yanked the USA out of a previously agreed summit communique, and accused the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, of being “dishonest and weak”.
All, of course, straight out of the book, ‘How to win friends and influence people.’
The G7, which is supposed to be a network of global co-operation between the world’s leading countries, has been turned into a fiasco.
All because a dangerous bully has been put in charge at the White House. A guy who uses shockingly harsh, belittling language towards fellow democratically-elected leaders of allied countries to enforce his way.
The guy Boris Johnson thinks should be in charge of Brexit.
President Trump is setting America on a perilous course, alienated from its allies, isolated, abandoning co-operation and attempting to win dirty trade wars with those previously considered to be friends.
Brexit is doing exactly the same to Britain. We are cutting ourselves off from our nearest and most important allies; our friends and neighbours in Europe.
We think we can ‘go it alone’, just as Trump thinks that America will be great again, alone.
It’s not too late to extricate ourselves from this mad path to pandemonium. We don’t have to follow Trump’s method of madness, so admired by Boris Johnson.
We should be working with our allies in Europe, not leaving them at just the time when we need our friends close at hand.
It’s complete folly to believe that Brexit will bring anything good to Britain. The country needs an urgent opportunity to do a democratic U-turn on Brexit, and return to sanity.
The alternative is to follow Trump, and Boris, on a road to ruin.
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Other articles by Jon Danzig:
- Why referendums and Parliament are incompatible
- Why we need another vote on Brexit
- Why the EU referendum was flawed
Follow my journalism page on Facebook: Jon Danzig writes
Follow my Stop Brexit campaign on Facebook: Reasons2Remain
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