The Slatest

Boris Johnson Compares Donald Trump to Robert Mugabe, but in a Good Way

Robert Mugabe, Donald Trump.

Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Jekesai Njikizana/AFP/Getty Images, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

Look, say what you will about Donald Trump, he’s not significantly worse than Zimbabwe’s erratic, mass-murdering, kleptocrat Robert Mugabe.

This is basically the argument British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson used Monday in response to growing calls from Parliament and the public for Trump’s state visit to the United Kingdom to be canceled:

He’s not wrong! Though it’s worth pointing out that Mugabe (reportedly a fan of Trump) hasn’t been back since 1994, and the knighthood he was controversially given on that trip was later stripped from him in response to the brutal violence and widespread torture that followed the disputed election of 2008.

Good precedent.