At times it is better to be lucky than good. And yesterday Donald Trump was lucky indeed to find himself in the UK for the re-opening of one of his hotel/golf courses, on what the tabloid Sun calls Britain’s “Independence Day”. Trump is not alone in believing that Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, the so-called Brexit vote, suggests that he has correctly identified the issues that are troubling voters, not only in the UK but in the U.S.
From the early days of his campaign for the presidency Trump has been calling for America to regain control of its borders. He wants to ban immigration by Muslims until a vetting process is established, and end the flow of Mexicans and others illegally entering the US. A similar desire to regain control of immigration policy was one of the drivers of the Leave vote in Britain, a country required by its membership in the European Union to admit any citizen of an EU country, allow him to work and to receive the same benefits as British citizens. Prime Minister Cameron had promised to reduce immigration to the tens of thousands: In fact, 300,000 immigrants came to Britain last year. And who-knows-how-many Syrian and other Middle Eastern and African immigrants might arrive legally once they have EU papers, and illegally if people smugglers ferry them across the channel.
