Leave it to the British to play all sides of a game—especially when they’re worried about the result.
This is the context for Boris Johnson’s seemingly odd op-ed in Britain’s Daily Mail over the weekend, which sought to restore calm and composure among a Western establishment currently panicking over the prospect of a Trump victory in the United States. Johnson provides a little advice: Stop worrying and let’s make the prospect of a Trump presidency something which can fit our needs.
He starts off by saying: “If you look at the facts, you can actually make a case—and I may as well make it now—that a Trump presidency could be just what the world needs.” These “facts” include Trump being the first to “stand up to Putin” by giving Ukraine Javelin missiles. They also include Trump’s strongman tactics in striking Syria after the allegations that Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons, and assassinating Iranian Gen. Soleimani. Plus, argues BoJo, “Trump will certainly demand that the Europeans pay more for their own defence.” Therefore, “there is every chance, under Trump, that the West will be stronger, and the world more stable.”
“You could certainly argue, on this evidence, that what the world needs now is a U.S. leader whose willingness to use force and sheer unpredictability is a major deterrent to the enemies of the West. If so, that leader is Trump,” Johnson writes.
Trump’s actual policies are exactly what the Western world needs, he says, and people’s disgust is only a matter of “style.” Therefore, calm down, and let’s get on with maintaining the unipolar world order, which Johnson thinks he can mold Trump to do: “We all need to grow up and get used to the prospect. If he does the right thing and backs the Ukrainians—and I believe he will—a Trump presidency can be a big win for the world.”
Whether or not Trump can be massaged to fit this persona is certainly unclear, but the British intent to attempt to do so is not.
