Noted Donald Trump defender and former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson dismissed King Charles “woke” after the pair disagreed on Britain’s colonial past, a new book claims.
Published in the Brexit-inspired book Out, political journalist Tim Shipman details the simmering tensions between Johnson and the then-Prince Charles over their contrasting views on slavery and its ties to the U.K.’s colonial past. According to Shipman, Johnson accused Charles of being captured by a “woke ideology” after the royal admitted he was eager to “acknowledge the evils” of the monarchy’s colonialist history.
The pair’s conflicting views on Britain and colonialism came to a head when Charles weighed in on the Johnson government’s failed plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, a policy which the Prince reportedly described as “appalling” ahead of his Commonwealth visit to the Rwandan capital of Kigali. Shipman wrote that At the time, Charles was said to be eager “to respond to the widespread fury about colonialism unleashed by the Black Lives Matter campaign, by acknowledging the evils of slavery,”
This prompted a stern reaction from Johnson, who was supposedly “despair[ed] that even the monarchy had been captured by woke ideology.” As a result, Johnson allegedly told his communications director at the time that he “went in pretty hard” on Charles, pushing back against the Prince’s desire to acknowledge the lingering traces of colonialism and slavery.
For an idea of Charles’ opinions on this we can see his recent speech at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa. While he didn’t apologize directly for Britain’s past, he acknowledged the issue and stressed the need to “learn from the lessons of the past” and “find the right ways to address it.”
It’s not the first time Charles has been subject to scrutiny as the head of a monarchy built by colonialism. Last month, while touring Australia, the King was heckled by a First Nations politician who accused him during a Parliamentary visit of “genocide against our people” during the English settlement of Australia. It remains to be seen how Johnson’s tension with Charles might factor into the monarch’s relationship with Trump.
While the president-elect has been less than complimentary about Charles’ son, Prince Harry — vowing to kick him out of the U.S. and criticizing his supposedly preferential treatment by Joe Biden — Trump appears to hold softer views of the King. “Hopefully [Charles] is going to be well because he’s a really good person,” Trump was captured saying in the recent documentary The Art of the Surge: The Donald Trump Comeback.
The same scene from the doco sees Trump call Queen Camilla “fantastic,” and reminisce on Queen Elizabeth as “unbelievable.” Since Johnson has been a longtime supporter of Trump — from defending him about the January 6 insurrection to saying he was “optimistic” about a second Trump presidency — Trump’s seeming affinity for Charles might throw a spanner in the works. Maybe they can all work it out over a spot of tea and biscuits, or in Trump’s case, a large Big Mac combo.