Liz Truss has much more in common with Donald Trump than just the first three letters of his surname.
Despite presenting themselves as “outsiders”, both enjoyed substantial political careers and reached the top of their profession as prime minister of the UK and president of the United States respectively.
In both cases, their periods in power ended in ways that outraged their opponents and many in their own Conservative and Republican parties. Economic chaos brought on by her rash policies forced Truss out of office after just 49 days in 10 Downing Street.
Trump lost the 2020 election, refused to accept his defeat and praised the mob who stormed the Capitol in an attempt to keep him in the White House.
Many thought they were finished for good. But like those who had laughed at their ambitions earlier in their careers, the nay-sayers were wrong again. Both have been reprieved and continue to be respected as forces in their parties.
Trump is currently the narrow frontrunner to beat Joe Biden and win re-election on 5 November, while Truss said this week: “I definitely have unfinished business. Definitely.”
Truss is still an MP and intends to stand again in her safe Tory seat in Norfolk. She was on her feet in the Commons this week to oppose Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak‘s attempts to prevent rising generations from smoking tobacco.
Book promotion
On Monday she will be back in Washington DC speaking at the conservative thinktank, the Heritage Foundation, to promote her grandly titled memoir Ten Years To Save The West.
Most of the book could be more accurately described as Forty Nine Days To Lose My Job, yet Truss is determined to place her personal fate in the context of a wider global ideological struggle. Her final chapter lists “important lessons we can learn so we can…
