How will the US-UK relationship evolve with Boris Johnson in No 10?

Boris Johnson has already been dubbed “Britain Trump” by the occupant of the Oval Office, who probably sees it as the highest compliment anyone could bestow. In designating the incoming prime minister a fellow blond “mini-me”, Trump has signalled the US-UK relationship is about to become special in entirely new ways.

There is little doubt that the atmospherics are destined for a dramatic improvement, in the near term at least.

Trump and Theresa May started off well, holding hands in the White House, but that relationship soured as soon as she rebuked him over his impromptu interventions in UK affairs.

Trump appears to have forgiven Johnson for a flamboyant range of past insults, such as the occasion four years ago when the then London mayor said the then presidential candidate demonstrated “a quite stupefying ignorance that makes him, frankly, unfit to hold the office of president of the United States”.

Now that he does hold that office, Trump has decided that Johnson has reformed, and is now the ally who will deliver Brexit where May failed. For now, in the president’s eyes, Johnson is “tough and he’s smart”.

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