Donald Trump has offered his backing to Boris Johnson, the frontrunner to become the UK’s prime minister next week, saying he will succeed in pushing through Brexit.

The US president, who has been heavily critical of Theresa May’s attempts to reach a withdrawal deal, has previously sought to align his own populist politics with the UK’s vote to leave the EU, for which Johnson was a leading campaigner.

He said of Johnson on Friday: “I like him. I spoke to him yesterday. I think we’re going to have a great relationship.”

Trump also said May had “done a very bad job with Brexit”, adding: “It’s a disaster and it shouldn’t be that way. I think Boris will straighten it out.”

Johnson has been prominent among those facing questions over their willingness to stand up to Trump. Both he and Jeremy Hunt, his opponent in the race to succeed May, declined during a recent head-to-head debate to explicitly condemn as racist the president’s call for four American Congresswomen of colour to “go back home” to other countries.

It followed criticism of Johnson’s conduct in an earlier debate, when he repeatedly refused to back the UK’s ambassador to Washington, Sir Kim Darroch, who Trump had said he would no longer deal with.

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/19/donald-trump-offers-his-...

Forget Donald Trump. Boris Johnson is hurtling towards becoming Great Britain's next prime minister.

Just as politics was transformed in the US, as Mr Johnson walks through the doors at Downing Street, there will be a seismic shift in the landscape.

And the blond bombshell will take at least some of the spotlight that has been dedicated to the US President.

It might sound trivial, but according to Sonia Purnell, the author of Just Boris: A Tale of Blond Ambition, it is his blond hair that has been one of Mr Johnson's greatest assets on his rise to the top.

"When I met him in the 1990s his blond hair was really neat but it didn't quite suit the image that he wanted," Ms Purnell said.

"So over the years he got used to — particularly when the camera's about to roll — to ruffling it up.

"Neat didn't quite fit the persona he wanted, the sort of [rough] kind of character."

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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-21/forget-donald-trump-get-ready-for...

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Johnson appears to dream of one day walking on water. For now, though, he simply wants to become Britain's next prime minister.

That's what brought him here to the seaside resort of Bournemouth in southern England. He ignores the thousands of Brits frolicking on the kilometer-long beach on this summer day, and instead marches straight into the Pavilion Theatre where the "Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club" regularly performs and the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar" will soon be staged.

Around 600 members of the Conservative Party are sitting in the cream-colored theater and are currently in the process of electing a new leader -- who will also be Britain's next prime minister. There's not much excitement in the hall; the whole thing is more reminiscent of a funeral service than a coronation mass, though that probably has less to do with the desolate state of the Tories than with the advanced median age of the audience, which looks to be around 70.

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https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/what-a-prime-minister-boris-...

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King of gamblers

The struggle for Brexit is taking on ever more absurd features: Parliament has outmaneuvered Premier Johnson for the time being. But he is wringing around more wildly — and casually destroying his own conservative party. It will probably be soon for new elections.

Whatever Brexit may bring, these are the images that will remain from this week: how Nicholas Soames, Winston Churchill's grandson, resigned from political service after 36 years — reminiscent of his grandfather, who once had been wronged before he finally prevailed. As Philip Hammond, former Chancellor of the Exchequer and epitome of the party soldier also did, Boris Johnson with a pale face announces "the fight of his life".

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