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The resignation of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is a testament to the power of elected politicians to hold their leaders accountable. It’s a lesson that has been missed by GOP officials as they repeatedly weigh how to deal with former President Donald Trump.
Johnson’s resignation on Thursday came after a collapse in support among members of his government and backbenchers in the Conservative Party. Nothing like this happened to Trump, not during his first impeachment, not his second impeachment, not even after the role he played in the attack on the Capitol by his supporters on January 6, 2021. In any case, everyone, all but a handful of Republican elected officials rallied behind Trump — and still do.
Johnson’s resignation came after a long period of decline in his position. He has been on the defensive for months because of one scandal after another. He tried to find a way out of his problems, and for a while he succeeded. He was defiant in the face of the evidence, then offered excuses when he couldn’t avoid the truth.
The collapse in support this week began when two prominent cabinet members, Rishi Sunak, the government’s finance minister, and Sajid Javid, the health minister, announced their resignations. By the time Johnson resigned, more than 50 ministers and junior ministers announced their resignations from their government posts.
In the day before Johnson announced his resignation as leader of his party (he said he would stay on as prime minister until a new party leader was chosen), the public chorus of calls for him to step down continued to grow louder . Adding to these public voices, members of his cabinet – even some seemingly loyal ones – met him at Number 10 Downing Street to tell him privately that his time was up.
These warnings were reminiscent of what happened to President Richard M. Nixon in August 1974, when top Republicans in Congress, led by Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, went to the White House and told Nixon that his support in the Senate had collapsed, and a sign that he was likely to be convicted in an impeachment trial. Rather than go down in history as the first president to be impeached and convicted, Nixon chose the less unpleasant course and resigned.
Trump has never experienced what Johnson just experienced. At no point did Republican leaders — senators, House members, governors, national or state party officials — collectively attempt to confront him. After January 6, 2021, there was talk in Trump’s office of invoking the 25th Amendment and declaring him ineligible for office, but it came to nothing. Lawmakers condemned him for the attack on the Capitol and then, over time, began to back down.
Johnson was elected Tory leader in 2019 following the resignation of former prime minister Theresa May, in part because he was seen by others in the party as someone with the calling to win a general election and someone who could hold together a party divided on resolution of the 2016 national referendum to leave the European Union, the Brexit decision. In the general election later that year, he proved them right, securing a parliamentary majority of 80 seats against a weakened Labor Party with a compromised leader.
Lately, however, the party’s fortunes were beginning to decline and Johnson was becoming a political liability. The Conservatives did enough in May’s local elections to keep him in power, suffering losses but not as big as some had feared. Late last month, the Conservatives lost two special elections. Earlier in the month he survived a vote of no confidence in his own party, but even then the Tories’ prospects of winning a general election began to diminish.
Johnson seemed to have an unlimited number of political lives, but his fellow conservatives found his defense too difficult. With the latest scandal, the revelation that he had been warned about the sexual misconduct of Chris Pincher, a Tory politician appointed as Chief Deputy Cllr, did nothing about it and claimed he had not been warned, the stench of his leadership has become too strong .
Republicans haven’t gotten that far with Trump. They have weighed the consequences of challenging someone who remains the dominant force in their party and have decided to either vigorously defend him or simply remain silent. They say they are on track to regain their majority in the House and possibly the Senate. They are ready to challenge the evidence that has accumulated during hearings of the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.
There are similarities in the characters of Johnson and Trump, which may be why they are instinctively drawn to each other. Even as Johnson maneuvered against May, Trump praised him and egged her on, including one famous interview in which he criticized May and spoke highly of Johnson as he arrived on a visit to the UK with May as his host.
Neither Johnson nor Trump really took the responsibilities of their office seriously. Both preferred braggadocio to serious study. They are showmen, not statesmen, prone to rhetorical excess and flashy displays, enjoying the roar of the crowd. Both have a tendency to spread false claims even when it is obvious.
Johnson may have been willing to apologize when caught and cornered, but that was more survival instinct than sincerity. His resignation speech was anything but contrite. Trump seems even more incapable of admitting mistakes.
But the differences in the two countries’ political systems help explain why what happened to Johnson this week never happened to Trump.
British elected officials have much more power to determine who leads their parties and therefore who becomes Prime Minister through a general election. Johnson’s successor will ultimately be decided by a vote of the full membership of the Conservative Party, the UK’s rank and file loyalists. But to get to the final vote, those seeking to lead the party must first survive a vote among members of parliament that narrows the field to the final two candidates.
Trump has never been committed to the elected representatives of the Republican Party, most of whom initially opposed his bid for the presidency. Apart from their ability to endorse someone, they have no significant role in choosing the party’s presidential candidate. Trump hijacked the GOP on his way to the 2016 nomination, swayed it in his direction, and defied party pressure to challenge him. He continues to do so.
No one expects incumbent Republicans to turn against Trump at this point. They are too invested in avoiding an internal war with Trump’s staunchest supporters before the 2022 election, where the odds are in their favor. How well Trump-backed candidates fare in November could change the calculus of some GOP leaders as they look to 2024 and the question of who should be the party’s presidential nominee.
Still, the role elected officials played in forcing Johnson out of office is a reminder of the extent to which Republican leaders in this country — elected lawmakers, former White House officials and members of Trump’s cabinet — have chosen different path.
It’s true that political calculation entered heavily into what happened in Britain this week, and political calculation will influence how Republicans respond to Trump in the future. But when faced with what happened on January 6, 2021, only a few Republicans stood up, spoke out, and sustained that criticism regardless of the political consequences.
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