Trump and Johnson: Tweedledumbies wrecking the West

English writer Lewis Carroll created two of the most memorable fictional characters that Alice encountered in Wonderland: Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

The two rotund men in identical outfits are so similar that they are almost indistinguishable. These buffoonish characters provide an apt description of US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

While Trump is seeking re-election in 2020 after three divisive years in office, Johnson won a landslide 80-seat victory in UK parliamentary polls in December.

Both are nativists who have made xenophobic and vulgar comments. Trump sought to condone the actions of antisemitic neo-Nazis in Charlottesville in 2017. The US president has thrown away the dog whistle and openly uses a giant blow horn to mobilise the mob. He has referred to African and Caribbean countries as “s**t holes”. Johnson failed to apologise for calling black Britons “piccaninnies” with “watermelon smiles”, and referring to Muslim women in burkas as “letterboxes”.

He had earlier complained that Caribbean people in Britain were “multiplying like flies”. Both leaders have fuelled antiimmigrant sentiment and stoked divisive culture wars.

Both are crude populists who have been able to attract insecure working-class voters in Michigan and Manchester with appeals to their basest instincts. Both have, however, promoted tax cuts for the rich, while pretending to be governing in favour of the middle and working classes.

Both have also been accused of monarchical delusions. Republican and Conservative legislators, however, feel they owe their loyalty to these leaders who are more respected as vote-getters than genuinely loved by their parties.

Both are congenital liars. The noses of the Pinocchio president and premier have grown longer in office. Trump has falsely claimed to have reduced the costs of prescription drugs, and to have defeated the Islamic State. As a journalist for The Times, Johnson invented quotes that eventually led to his sacking. He led the 2016 “Brexit” campaign that grossly exaggerated how much money Britain would get back from leaving the EU.

Both are gamblers and risktakers. Trump’s reckless killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Iraq in January nearly led to a catastrophic war that could have set the Middle East ablaze. In his blundering dealings with

Brussels, Johnson often has the air of a deranged poker player.

Both are anti-multilateralists. Trump has questioned the utility of Nato and the UN. Johnson led a populist campaign that took Britain out of the EU in January.

Both men are philanderers who are on their third marriages and have been ensnared in sex scandals.

Johnson has, however, recently defied Trump by choosing Chinese telecommunications company Huawei to build Britain’s 5G network. But London still needs Washington more than the US needs Britain. After Brexit, a free trade deal with the US remains a highly sought-after prize.

Another four-year presidential term for Trump would almost certainly irreparably fracture the Western alliance, resulting in the possible demise of Nato, to the benefit of China and Russia. Peace efforts in the Middle East will also be hard to resurrect as the US president would continue to act as a dishonest broker, condoning Israeli expansionism and illegal settlements.

Under Johnson, Britain will continue the most spectacular decline experienced by a contemporary “great power”.

With its exit from the EU market, which takes half of its exports, London will continue to cut off its nose to spite its face. “Great Britain” is on a downward spiral to becoming “Little England”, and could lose Scotland and Northern Ireland from the union..

That both of these deeply flawed leaders represent “leaders of the free world” speaks volumes about the state of Western “civilisation”.