They were the twin faces of populist uprisings against the old elite, but on Wednesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made the clearest statement yet that he was moving on from President Trump after his election defeat.
Johnson was apparently the first European leader to be telephoned by Joe Biden since becoming the presumptive president-elect.
And a day later, the prime minister, speaking in the House of Commons, focused on their shared stance on tackling climate concerns and standing up for NATO, before making clear that Trump, who continues to dispute the election result, was on his way out.
“I had and have a good relationship with the previous president. I do not resile from that. It is in the duty of all British prime ministers to have a good relationship with the White House,” he said.
Johnson was among several world leaders who spoke to Biden on Tuesday.
His reference to Trump as the “previous president” is a reminder that much of the world has already moved on to a new era.
However, several nations have steered clear of congratulating Biden, reflecting testy relations with Washington or suspicion of a new Democratic administration.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan are among those who have kept quiet.
In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said: “Anticipating your possible question about Putin congratulating the U.S. president-elect, I want to say the following: ‘We consider it correct to wait for the official summing up of the results of the elections.'”
Trump might have expected Johnson to offer more in the way of support. Britain’s Brexit referendum in June 2016 was seen as a herald of a new populist wave that carried Trump to power a few months later, before installing Johnson as prime minister last year and powering him to an election landslide.
But on Tuesday, Downing Street spelled out the details of a warm conversation between the prime minister and the presumptive president-elect, and topics that suggested a change in focus after the Trump years.
“The prime minister warmly congratulated Joe Biden on his election as president of the United States,” a spokesman said. “They discussed the close and longstanding relationship between our countries and committed to building on this partnership in the years ahead, in areas such as trade and security, including through NATO.”
