A thought about UK attitudes to Trump
Public
I wonder whether one of the reasons Trump is unpopular in the UK is actually one of the reasons he has more support in the US: his hitting the ground running. He's barely been in office for a week and he's already made a lot of new policy. The fact that most of it was heavily trailed isn't the point: it's that he's actually implementing it already. Most people in the UK disliked him anyway, and this may make things worse over here.
We don't like that speed of movement in our own leaders: "an unseemly rush" is a very British phrase. We grumble that Theresa May says "Brexit means Brexit" without explaining, but I suspect she'd have got a lot more criticism if she'd ripped up the rulebook on her first day in a Trump-like way. Look at Nigel Farage: yes, he was a major player in getting Brexit, but he's never won a Parliamentary election in his life. (Admittedly, part of that is because UKIP's electoral machine is very poor.)
Another thing: over the last few decades, say since the Thatcher/Reagan era, the UK and the US have seemed to become closer in their style of doing politics. I wonder whether the Trump/May era may bring home to us that actually we're still very different societies in many ways. It so happens that our countries' respective next general elections will both be held in 2020: by then the answer may be clearer.
I wonder whether one of the reasons Trump is unpopular in the UK is actually one of the reasons he has more support in the US: his hitting the ground running. He's barely been in office for a week and he's already made a lot of new policy. The fact that most of it was heavily trailed isn't the point: it's that he's actually implementing it already. Most people in the UK disliked him anyway, and this may make things worse over here.
We don't like that speed of movement in our own leaders: "an unseemly rush" is a very British phrase. We grumble that Theresa May says "Brexit means Brexit" without explaining, but I suspect she'd have got a lot more criticism if she'd ripped up the rulebook on her first day in a Trump-like way. Look at Nigel Farage: yes, he was a major player in getting Brexit, but he's never won a Parliamentary election in his life. (Admittedly, part of that is because UKIP's electoral machine is very poor.)
Another thing: over the last few decades, say since the Thatcher/Reagan era, the UK and the US have seemed to become closer in their style of doing politics. I wonder whether the Trump/May era may bring home to us that actually we're still very different societies in many ways. It so happens that our countries' respective next general elections will both be held in 2020: by then the answer may be clearer.