Is Boris Johnson the British Trump?

They both have eyebrow-raising blonde hairstyles, a history of controversies surrounding alleged racist comments, and are known for their compulsive womanising, but is that where the comparisons end?

Donald Trump has lavished praise on his new British counterpart, Boris Johnson, who takes over as prime minister after fellow Conservative Theresa May stepped down.

The US president said the Conservative British politician “will be great” for the top job and spoke approvingly about comparisons some in the British media had made. “They call him Britain’s Trump,” he said.

The pair share a long history of controversies on subjects as varied as race and marital fidelity.

On Islam, Trump campaigned on a platform of banning Muslims from entering the US. While Johnson has shied away from such calls, he was a fierce critic of Islam before campaigning for senior political office.

In a 2006 book, Johnson wrote: “Islam inherently inhibits the path to progress and freedom.”

On migration, Trump has fought tooth and nail to keep migrants from entering the US via its southern border with Mexico, describing those crossing in as ‘rapists’ and members of criminal gangs.

Johnson for his part used fear of migration as the backbone of his successful 2016 campaign for the UK to leave the EU.

On race as well, the pair have a controversial record. Trump last week told a group of four ethnic minorities, who are all US citizens, to ‘go back’ to where they came from. Meanwhile Johnson is on the record as describing black people as ‘piccaninnies’ and as having a ‘watermelon smile’ - the former is a racial slur and the latter a racist trope applied to black people by white supremacists.

In 2016, Johnson claimed former-US President Barack Obama had an ‘ancestral dislike of the UK’ because of his Kenyan heritage.

The pairing of Trump with Johnson on the international stage has worried many. 

“I really fear for the world when Trump is the face for the USA and Johnson is the face of the UK,” wrote one Twitter user, adding: “How did we let it get this far?”