Rupert Myers: What is it about Reform’s obsession with Trump and, of all things, Penguins?

Rupert Myers is a former conservative association deputy chairman and conservative council candidate.

Reform’s apparent obsession with Donald Trump has reached almost comic levels.

The party seems determined to import MAGA-style messaging into British politics, ignoring the widening political and cultural gulf between Britain and America. Reform’s London mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham recently recreated Trump’s bizarre “penguin” meme as part of her campaign on social media.

One young Reform backer proudly claimed “I stand with ICE” before deleting the post following backlash in the wake of the shooting of VA hospital nurse Alex Pretti.

The White House caused a stir by posting an AI-generated image of President Trump strolling through a snowy landscape alongside a penguin holding a US flag as part of its clumsy campaign to obtain Greenland.

Incredibly, Cunningham thought this was worth mimicking, sharing a photo of herself trudging across a frozen, post-apocalyptic London with a penguin in tow, urging voters to “choose a new path for London” before “it’s too late”.

The original meme was mocked by many who pointed out that penguins don’t live in Greenland. Odder still is the belief that Londoners would find a copycat of Trump’s tone persuasive. Reform’s tilt towards Trumpism is unlikely to slow down with the defection of Suella Braverman from the Conservatives; earlier this month she published an article claiming that “Trump’s triumph offers a new blueprint for Britain” and it may yet cause Reform to hit an iceberg.

Reform is far too eager to ride Trump’s coattails, seemingly convinced that whatever worked for Trump in America will work here. Farage himself has spent years cozying up to Trump, proudly touting his status as Trump’s favourite Englishman despite not getting into the room for his inauguration. Even Farage, to his credit, appears aware of Trump’s excesses and has recently taken to quietly distancing himself from Trump’s wildest ideas, publicly warning that Trump’s musing about invading Greenland would spell the end of NATO. It’s quite something when Britain’s leading Trump cheerleader feels compelled to play the grown-up and tell the US President not to act like a comic book villain, but can he tame Trump-mania in his party?

While Farage does his best to soft-pedal Trump’s more Penguin-brained impulses (the fat crazy Batman villain not the delightful bird) Reform as a whole can’t quit Trump. The enthusiasm with which figures like Cunningham latch onto Trumpian memes and culture-war gimmicks shows many in Reform are determined to re-create the MAGA movement on this side of the Atlantic whether or not British voters are interested. This is a miscalculation. The Britishmedia ecosystem is nothing like America’s. In the US, Trump’s movement thrives in an echo chamber. Britain lacks a comparably resonant media chorus to amplify “alternative facts”. British voters are overall less cocooned in partisan media, more likely to hear the counterarguments, and more inclined to roll their eyes at performative populism; we are not a country divided along toxic and entrenched political lines. Trump is relatively unpopular in Britain, and that is overwhelmingly unlikely to change for the better.

Going along with Trump might excite a subset of Reform’s online activists, but it’s more of a liability than a ticket to Downing Street while Trump shows himself to be an unreliable ally, while civilians are shot on US streets, and Trump’s outriders traduce the US constitution itself trying to defend events in Minessota. Most voters are worried about inflation, the NHS, and the cost of living rather than conspiratorial memes about Greenland. At best Trump-mania comes across as naïve and infantile, at worst Reform’s supporters risk attaching themselves to a dangerous personality cult, and they surely wouldn’t want to make that mistake twice.

The Trump movement is on course to self-implode. Trump’s second administration has been a chaotic circus from day one. Allies are in near revolt; European leaders are forced into emergency summits and even stalwart supporters are blanching at his instability. For all the social media bluster and Farage’s skill generating headlines, Reform already lacks depth and substance in policy terms. The last thing Reform can afford as they become a refuge for familiar faces the voters have already rejected, is to lose whatever is left of their insurgent freshness somewhere in the mid-atlantic, attaching themselves to a man who cares little for fallen British servicemen who died alongside America when it invoked NATO Article 5. 

In contrast, the Conservatives, freed from the need to placate every Farage fan,  are starting to rediscover the virtues of a steadier, more thoughtful approach. Under Kemi Badenoch’s leadership, the Tory party’s post-election reset has been cautious but crucial. Badenoch has wisely resisted any temptation to out-Farage Farage with gimmicks. She’s rebuilding credibility with sometimes-unshowy seriousness of intent. The Conservatives grasp that after years of chaotic spectacle, British voters craved competence over showmanship, so much so that they enthusiastically mistook Starmer’s dullness and lack of vision for competence. By pruning the showboaters and refocusing on practical solutions, the Conservatives are positioning themselves as the adults back in the room. It is impossible for Reform to compete on seriousness while their candidates and outriders are cosplaying MAGA.

Perhaps Reform’s Trump fixation is essentially about two things: Nigel Farage’s perennial desire to do what’s best for Nigel Farage and stay pally with his most powerful friend; and the obvious enthusiasm that natural Reform campaigners have for the unorthodox and the taboo. There are thrills to be had talking like Trump, acting the clown, and saying what others are afraid to say, but is there a hard ceiling when it comes to national support? The Conservative Party, for all its recent troubles, appears to understand that Britain doesn’t need its own mini-Trump movement, and is appalled by his denigration of our servicemen and our allies.

The country needs competence, accountability, and old-fashioned common sense.

The Reform crowd may enjoy their fanboying, but politics is a serious, complicated business, and deep down voters know that complex issues, unlike penguins, aren’t always black and white. As Trump slides further down the glacier towards the cold waters of instability, a cautious, principled conservative renewal stands ready to remind voters that quiet competence outlasts razzle-dazzle showmanship and greasepaint.

Slow and steady can yet win the race, while those too close to Trump might just find themselves waddling into a blizzard of irrelevance.