Liz Truss has a lot more in common with Donald Trump than just the first three letters of her last name.
Despite presenting themselves as “outsiders”, both enjoyed substantial political careers and reached the top of their profession as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. and President of the United States, respectively.
In both cases, their periods in power ended in a way that outraged their opponents and many in their own Conservative and Republican parties. The economic chaos caused by his hasty policies forced Trellis left office after just 49 days at 10 Downing Street.
trump lost the 2020 electionsrefused to accept his defeat and praised the crowd who invaded the Capitol in an attempt to keep him in the White House.
Many thought they were finished forever. But, like those who had laughed at their ambitions early in their careers, the naysayers were wrong again. Both were dismissed and continue to be respected as forces in their parties.
Trump is currently the favorite to defeat Joe Biden and be re-elected on November 5, while Truss said this week: “I definitely have unfinished business. Definitely.”
Truss is still an MP and intends to retake her safe Conservative seat in Norfolk. She was standing in the House of Commons this week to oppose the Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunakattempts to prevent future generations from smoking tobacco.
Book promotion
On Monday, she will be back in Washington DC, speaking at the conservative thinktank Heritage Foundation, to promote her towering memoir, Ten Years To Save The West..
The majority of the book could more accurately be described as Forty-Nine Days to Lose My Job, however, Truss is determined to place her personal destiny in the context of a broader global ideological struggle. Her final chapter lists “important lessons we can learn to win.”
They include “We must dismantle the Left State,” “We must restore democratic accountability,” and “Conservatism must win throughout the free world, particularly in the United States of America.”
Donald Trump in court earlier this week. Photo: Reuters
Liz Truss has always changed her shape. Born to left-wing academic parents, she was first heard 30 years ago as a young liberal democrat calling for the abolition of the monarchy. She supported Remain during the 2016 EU referendum before becoming a die-hard Brex supporter.
Right-wing populist transformation
Her latest return tour “confirms her transformation into a radical right-wing populist”, according to Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London and author of The Conservative Party After Brexit.
Like Trump, Truss criticizes “extremist environmentalist dogma and wokeism”. His vision of a failed British state that has been “captured by leftist ideas” is in line with Trump’s vision of “American carnage”, unless he is there to make America great again.
Of course, Truss supports Trump over Biden in the upcoming election. It is not common practice for former British political leaders to give such blatant support in a foreign election.
Truss said she would like Nigel Farage to join the Conservative Party. Photo: Reuters
“I think our opponents feared a Trump presidency more than they feared the Democrats being in power,” she says. “I believe we need a strong America… the world was safer [when Trump was president]”.
By “opponents” Truss means the “totalitarian regimes in China, Iran and Russia”. Her unwaveringly aggressive stance is probably where she differs most from Trump and some of his Republican cheerleaders. He openly admires dictators while encouraging his followers to block aid to Ukraine against Russia.
‘Prime Minister Truss’
Still, her rhetoric strikes a chord with the cold warriors at the Heritage Foundation, who treat her with the respect she desires.
Nicknamed “Prime Minister Truss” in the American way, her hosts describe her as “one of the few British politicians who really understands the United States and the direction America’s conservative movement is taking.”
Heritage’s “Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom” hosted her in February to give her annual lecture.
In fact, Truss’s knowledge of the real Thatcher appears to go little beyond raiding the costume box for some cosplay photos when she was Foreign Secretary and wore a tank top as a fashion accessory.
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Truss is weird, but so is Trump. The impenetrable resistance to appearing ridiculous is a trait she shares with the former president. Both operate in a post-truth world in which what they say and how they act trumps objective facts.
Never to blame
If things go wrong, they will never be to blame. Others – especially the “Deep State” bureaucracies – conspired against them.
In her memoirs, Truss says that when she was prime minister she did not know important facets of the national economy, such as the vulnerability of the LDI’s pension funds. She condemns the Bank of England for not telling her.
She claims the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and the Treasury brought her down, even though she did not allow the OBR to review her mini-budget in advance and fired the Treasury’s top civil servant on the first day.
Now she complains about “a mass of quangos, independent regulators, official advisory bodies and various public sector organizations that restrict and obstruct ministers at every turn”.
She wants to abolish the OBR, the United Nations, the UK Supreme Court and wants the current governor of the Bank of England to resign.
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‘Democratic responsibility’
Seizing absolute power by gaining control of conservative factions and crushing any person or institution that stands in their way is the kind of “democratic responsibility” she believes in.
Truss’s American friendships extend beyond the Heritage Foundation. She shared a platform at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) with Steve Bannon, who served as a political strategist in the Trump administration and was later indicted for fraud.
When Bannon described far-right figure Tommy Robinson, co-founder of the English Defense League, as “a hero,” she remained silent. Trump’s friend Nigel Farage, who Truss said she would like to see join the Conservative Party, was also at CPAC.
Failed leaders escaped exclusion
The disaster of her tenure should have disqualified Truss from further active involvement in politics. It has made the cost of living crisis much worse for most mortgage payers.
Unabashedly, she is still being politely listened to in Tory circles – including by the journalists she handpicked for a limited round of interviews in publishing the book.
Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer raised Truss several times with the Prime Minister at PMQs, referring to the “political wing of the Flat Earth Society” and the “tin foil hat brigade”.
Rishi Sunak said Truss had “fairytale” economic plans. Photo: PA
Sunak responded by saying Starmer was “shooting from the sidelines”, with the PM not directly referring to Truss.
However, he has already accused her of “fairytale economics” during a leadership debate.
The Republican Party had a golden opportunity to get rid of Trump after the January 6th insurrection.
He would have been disqualified from future office if the Senate had voted on his second impeachment. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, thought about it, but then the Republicans decided it was in his electoral interest to keep him around.
Trust not to be underestimated
In this country there has been much mockery over Truss’s latest demonstration. It would be a mistake to laugh at her outside the courtroom.
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Her “unfinished business” includes being a player who will drag the Conservatives to the right after a general election defeat. She would not need acceptance from the markets or the entire country to become party leader.
She would only need to win over the approximately one hundred thousand voting members of the Conservative Party. They’ve already elected her once—she was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom just 18 months ago—and no one likes to admit that she made a mistake.
If Trump manages to get re-elected, his brand of conservatism may seem attractive to some card-carrying “conservatives” here.
Truss as leader or senior shadow minister would keep Trumpism alive in this country.
The British Conservative Party would do well to think carefully before being tied down to five years of opposition with its borrowed, far-right self-obsession.
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
