NEW YORK — Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says that US presidential candidate Donald Trump’s “unpredictability” is an asset because it is a form of “deterrence” that keeps foreign leaders off balance.
“All deterrence is based on unpredictability, but it's also based on strength”, he said in an interview to USA Today.
Taking a very different perspective from many leaders and media, he said, “People say that one of the things that worries people is his unpredictability, right? ‘Oh, he's unpredictable’. That's a good thing.”
“It's good dealing internationally, because foreign leaders are a little nervous about (Trump)”, the Conservative British leader said.
He gave the example of Trump’s claim that Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if he had been in the White House.
“I think it is probably true that Putin would not have done it if he'd been in the White House — the ’22 invasion. I think that feels right to me”, he said.
Johnson was Britain’s foreign secretary from 2016 to 2018 when he became Prime Minister, an office he held till 2022, enabling him to watch both Trump and President Joe Biden at close quarters.
He did not endorse Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris, saying, “This is the decision for the American people.”
He said that unpredictability effectively gets the message across even to allies and recalled Trump at a 2017 NATO summit when Trump was accused of insulting the other leaders and acting churlish.
Trump tore up the prepared speech and “just extemporised this great tirade against everyone.”
His message was that NATO countries should increase their Defence budgets.
“The point was it was pure U.S. policy… but it was done in a totally unconventional way. And people later reported that summit saying, ‘oh, Trump was threatening to leave NATO.’ He wasn't doing anything of the kind. He was simply enunciating standard American policy and standard British policy about getting the allies to spend more and pay more (for Defence)”, he said.
“He did it in a way that was unconventional”, he added, but “it was good because they did start to pay more.”
Johnson said that Trump’s unconventional style “may offend refined political tastes”, but it has an appeal.
Many European leaders “think it's kind of uncouth, but I don't, and it is a terrible thing to admit, but I like it, so shoot me”, he said.
“If he turns up in a garbage truck to satirise his opponent, I like that. That's my kind of level, OK? And maybe it doesn't suit more refined political tastes, but I happen to go with it”, he said.
Johnson was referring to Trump turning up in a garbage truck with a trash collector’s vest on Tuesday in Milwaukee after President Joe Biden called his supporters “garbage”.
“People attack populism, but I kind of feel that our system is a great, great system, and it won't work if you can't actually address what people want you to fix”, he said.
Regarding the fears that Trump may give up on Ukraine, Johnson said that Trump’s actual record shows otherwise.
He said that Trump, for example, had given Ukraine Javelin missiles, and “if you look at the actual evidence of what he did, it was actually in sharp contrast to the relative inertia under the previous Democrat administration.”